Salford City boss Karl Robinson was brimming with praise after his side jumped to second place in League Two with a 1-0 win over Bristol Rovers at the Peninsula Stadium.
It was Ryan Graydon’s opener inside the opening ten minutes, which would ultimately condemn the Gas to an eighth defeat across their last ten encounters, but gave the Ammies plenty to be hopeful for as they hurtle closer towards a title race.
While there was scope for a more comfortable-looking scoreline, Karl Robinson made it clear that he was happy with his side’s game management.
“We showed really good control, we missed chances that we should’ve taken to make it a little bit more of an easier finish.
“We missed one or two chances, but when you don’t take them, and you look behind you, I was really pleased with the back five and the goalkeeper, and the lads who played in midfield protecting that.
“When you’re trying to be aggressive within the leagues, you take any win when they come along, but these wins are important to me, they’re not like the rest of them.”
Boasting a gleaming record of three goals in as many games, January recruit Ryan Graydon continues to endear himself to the Salford faithful, even despite squandering two golden chances to extend the lead, which Robinson sardonically pointed out.
“If you had a blooper reel today of Ryan Graydon, he probably missed the two biggest sitters of his career!“
“He scored a wonderful goal, a lovely, well-worked one where we looked to take them on the counter-attack, and he took the goal so well, absolute class act.
“There were a few big things for us today. It was Matt Butcher’s 300th professional appearance. We got Ossama Ashley back out on the pitch today.”
It was a real day of progression at the Peninsula, as Salford reached 10 matches unbeaten and welcomed back marquee man Ashley back from the treatment table, although Robinson maintained that his return will be carefully controlled.
Robinson went on: “No one should expect to see him start for another two or three weeks. We’ve got so many games coming up, Ossama Ashley plays a role in all of these games in the next two and a half weeks. I think that’s a real positive for us.
“We know that Fabio Borini will be back for Tuesday as well, he’s back from illness, so we just keep strengthening and strengthening.
Salford have scouted excellently so far this window, but the door remains open for potential extra incomings before the window shuts in less than a week’s time.
“And we know that the transfer window is still 7 days away from closing we got to make sure that we really put our foot through the floor and get one or two more players over the line.”
