February was certainly a mixed bag for Salford City, with room for improvement in the league partnered with a vital late victory, as well as an historic day out in the FA Cup.
The month started with a Thursday night short trip to take on Accrington Stanley, in a match that was televised live on Sky Sports Football. Despite a decent performance from The Ammies, it ended in a 1-0 defeat on the road, despite creating an abundance of chances that were unable to be taken.
That was followed by a memorable day out in the fourth round of the FA cup. Salford played local heavyweights Manchester City away for the second time in successive seasons, looking to improve on the 8-0 thrashing that was handed out to them in last year’s competition.
Karl Robinson’s side put up a valiant display against the European giants, Infront of tremendous backing, with over 5000 fans in the Salford end. Pep Guardiola’s side did run out 2-0 winners in the end but were made to work hard for it, with Salford creating quite a few of their own chances to get on the scoresheet, to cap off a positive say out all round for the club.
Unfortunately, the league game that came three days later seemed to be a bit too much after the highs of the weekend for Salford, as they fell to a 1-3 defeat at home to a Newport County side bottom of the league two , with Ben Woodburn’s stoppage time strike proved to be a consolation goal for the hosts.
That was then followed by a brutal defeat away at Cheltenham Town where despite Luke Garbutt’s second half red card, The Ammies were 1-2 up with five minutes to play, but ended up losing 3-2, as a 96th minute winner from George Miller inflicted a heart-breaking late defeat for the visitors.
This result was then followed up by a 1-2 defeat against Shrewsbury, making the final game of the month away at Colchester a must-win….
And that’s exactly what Salford did, picking up a vital three points on the road as they look to kickstart their promotion push.
A late winner from substitute Cole Stockton after fantastic work from Kelly N’Mai was enough to secure a huge three points that propelled Salford back into the playoff places, with games in hand to play on promotion rivals above them.
So a very interesting moth as far as Salford City’s promotion hopes go with a perfect way to end it, as well as a very impressive performance against one of the best teams in the world.
