Paul Scholes

Paul Scholes has ruled himself out of the permanent job as Salford City boss after the defeat at the weekend.

The Ammies conceded late on to lose their first league game in over 230 days, in their first game without Graham Alexander at the helm.

He was put in temporary charge of the position after last weeks shock departure of Graham Alexander, however he has made it clear that he will not be taking the job on a permanent basis.

Speaking after the game on Saturday he said: “Gary [Neville] and Chris [Casper] asked me to come in and take over while they find someone and nothing is different.

“I was happy to take over for now but we need to find an experienced manager, an experienced coach in this league and the sooner we do that, the better.

“It’s looking like I’ll be in charge again on Tuesday but you never know, anything can happen over the weekend.”

It was an unfortunate game for the Ammies who had plenty of chances to score throughout, but ultimately could not capitalise on their attempts.

The first half of the game was very end to end, and both sides had many chances to go one-up over their opponents.

Cristian Montano found space in the 16th minute after beating Tylor Golden from a through ball, however his resulting shot was struck with little power after being crowded by the Salford defence.

The first key moment from the game came in the 37th minute after Leon Legge brought down Ian Henderson in the penalty area. However his spot-kick was easily saved by Vale goalkeeper Scott Brown, before Henderson fired the rebound over the bar from six yards out.

A big blow for Salford came when midfielder Darron Gibson was stretched off in the 68th minute after landing awkwardly, appearing to injure his leg, with an update to the extent of his injury hopefully coming this week.

Port Vale’s Danny Whitehead found David Worral’s low cross on the edge of the box in the 70th minute, however Salford stopper Václav Hladký parried Whitehead’s shot out comfortably for a corner.

Salford were again unlucky not to score in the 75th minute after an inch-perfect cross from Brandon Thomas-Asante to James Wilson, who’s powerful header was saved excellently by Brown again.

It was Vale who came out on top though after Montano struck in the 86th minute on the half-volley into the top corner of the net to finish the game 1-0 to the hosts.

There was a big reaction from various opposition fans from numerous clubs after the defeat, that take a swipe at the club’s decision to dismiss Graham Alexander.

Speaking about the game however, Scholes was full of praise for both sides.

“We played some really good football at times,” Scholes added. “I thought we were good in possession, that doesn’t always win you games of football though, you have to put the ball in the back of the net.

“I was really pleased with our application, we passed the ball well at times but I would have liked us to create a little bit more, we didn’t manage that and we got done by a sucker-punch.

“We had opportunities, it was just that final bit that was missing but we were up against a good Port Vale team, one that could be up there challenging this year.”

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