Salford City 0-0 Barrow. Credit: Salford City Football Club (Through Twitter)

Chances were difficult to come by for Salford City on Saturday who played out a goalless draw against Barrow AFC.

The Ammies struggled to convert their dominate possession and passing into goal-scoring opportunities while riding their luck at times.

Case in point when in the first, half Dom Telford saw his low-rolling shot from just inside the box ricochet off the post and onto the back of Salford keeper Alex Cairns, grateful to see the ball at his side and not in the back of the net.

Neil Wood’s men did not settle without retort, with their best chance of the half coming from some simple play out the back that found Declan John on the wing.

John whipped a dangerous ball into the corridor of uncertainty, but ultimately proved even too uncertain for the arriving Ethan Ingram who could only fling himself at the ball like a salmon and hope for a fortunate bounce off his torso, but the ball trickled wide of the goal.

Barrow ended the first half the brighter, having two carbon-copy corners headed wide of the far post after twice being met by towering headers in the centre of the box.

The match highlight came in the second half when Salford gave away the lesser-spotted indirect freekick in their own box through a back pass giving the Bluebirds the chance to score from six yards.

Worrall rolled the ball back to Telford whose driven shot was blocked by an onrushing sea of black Salford shirts, blocking thrice the Barrow onslaught and leading to celebrations from the Ammies worthy of scoring a goal.

Whilst both sides continued to occasionally threaten, it was Salford who held the final regret, when Matty Lund sent a flying boot to meet a cross by John that Lund could only direct wide.

Neil Wood commented: “It’s a really tough place to come. It’s going to be a battle, it’s going to be hard and you’re looking for the fine margins just to get you over the line and take a chance so we’ll take the point.

“It keeps us another game without defeat, another game with a clean sheet which is a major positive for us and we move on to the next game.

“For the possession we had, we had to turn that possession into chances and we’ve probably had maybe two or three clear-cut chances there, big chances that we potentially could do a little bit better with so something to get better at,” the Ammies manager added.

“There’s always a lot of learning and a lot of things for us to get better at.”

Based on form, it is no surprise Salford only managed to draw with the Bluebirds as Barrow have made somewhat a specialty of drawing games in recent weeks, tying four of their last five and having the joint second most draws all season with seven.

On the other hand, Salford playing out a nil-nil draw is a novelty result for the Ammies who have not seen a goalless draw for almost a year since Wimbledon in November 2022.

Furthermore, going into the game, Salford had scored 13 goals in their previous five league games.

Neil Wood will be hoping his side will return to their goal-fest form tomorrow as the Ammies take on Manchester United’s U-21s in the EFL Trophy at the Peninsula.

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