Karl Robinson believes people should be “singing from the rooftops” about Salford City’s successes on and off the pitch and hopes the team’s promotion bid will captivate a “generation” of new fans.
The Ammies travel to relegation-threatened Crawley Town on Saturday with their automatic promotion hopes alive but hanging in the balance.
He will have one eye on events 160 miles north west of the Broadfield Stadium, as promotion-chasing Cambridge must drop points at Crewe to open the door for Salford to climb into the top three on the final day.
Ahead of the game, he called on his players to “control the controllables” and highlighted the positive effect the club’s impressive campaign has had on the club.
“It is in our hands,” Robinson said. “We have to win and we can control that. As long as we do our job, I can live with that.”
Across Robinson’s 16 years in football management, there have been few moments as heartbreaking as the 2-2 final-day draw with already-relegated Carlisle that cost Salford a play-off place twelve months ago.
Through it all 🧡 pic.twitter.com/qJhQXzjMoJ
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) May 1, 2026
“The pain that day was one of the worst things I’ve felt. I’ve lost at Wembley and I’ve had different moments but we were so good and missed so many chances.
“It felt like such a disappointment because we could have done more with our performance on the day.”
Carlisle scored twice in two first-half minutes on the final day last season before Salford battled back but could not find a late winner.
He added: “The drive back from there felt like one of the longest I’ve experienced. I struggled with it for a period of time, but it has been a motivator for us to work around the clock and be as competitive as we can be.”
“We don’t want to put ourselves in that position again. We want to win our game and if Cambridge win theirs, we can take that.
“Then we will take three very positive results into the first part of the play-offs. And then there might be more magical moments at this new ground.”
£1.40 match tickets for Salford’s centenary and moves to reduce admission prices for crucial games have certainly helped to make the Peninsula Stadium feel like a fortress.
“We know that we are not going to be like other clubs in Greater Manchester,” he explained. We are a generational football club and hopefully, over the next few generations, the young people who are coming here will be dads bringing their kids, and this football club will grow.
“The club is pioneering and that is something that we should be immensely proud of, and we should be singing that from the rooftops. The fans have been doing that lately and hopefully we can give them one more song and one more storyline this weekend.”
