"It’s news to me we’re snobs in Salford"
(From “Hobson’s choice”, a play by Harold Brighouse)
An early preview this week, as other activities will probably take over between now and Saturday!
Our current successful run (DWWWW) has brought about tangible and intangible outcomes - the obvious tangible result can be seen in the League 2 table which has seen us start December in 16th place looking nervously over our shoulder at the relegation zone, to our present 8th position level on points with the other play-off contenders. On the intangible side there is the mystery of how (and why) the same group of players who were so under-achieving in November can bring about such a transformation. The team spirit will naturally be very high following December’s results, but when you consider that in 3 of December’s games we’ve actually gone behind - it’s a bit like that TSB advert where the graph goes through the roof…
Anyway, on to Salford City as they are now known (originally Salford Central Mission in 1940, changing to Salford Central in 1947, then Salford Amateurs in the 1960’s (hence the nickname “The Ammies”) and finally Salford City in 1989). We played a part in their debut season a year ago when they won 0-3 at Bescot - their first ever away win in the Football League, and as they are currently level with us on 30 points it would be only polite to repeat the gesture and leapfrog over them!!
Players who have appeared for both sides are easily accounted for - a big fat zero (apparently), so we can go straight on to Salford City’s current form:-
December 2nd Carlisle United (A) Lost 2-1
December 5th Barrow (A) Won 0-1
December 12th Cheltenham Town (H) Drew 0-0
December 15th Newport County (H) Drew 1-1
December 19th Harrogate Town (A) Won 0-1
Salford are top of the table in one respect - they have the meanest defence in League 2, having only conceded 14 goals in their 18 games so far. Where scoring is concerned, we are actually ahead of them by a single goal - but we have played one game more…
Prediction? It would be quite an achievement to go a whole month undefeated, but this match doesn’t look as though it will be a goal-fest. A 1-1 draw would certainly keep us in the chasing pack for the play-offs, bearing in mind we have a 2 point cushion immediately beneath us. Let’s see if Scrimaldo can turn it on again!
UTS