Match report by Andy Giblin
The Ammies bounced back from Saturday’s indifferent display at Ilkeston to earn a hard-fought and deserved win at the Marine Travel Arena.
Cold nights on Merseyside but conditions were pretty decent as the match got underway and both sides looked lively early on, there had already been sniffs of chances at either end when the first clear cut opportunity arrived in third minute.
Marine’s Danny Mitchley picked up a pass out to the left before getting to the line and pulling a pass back into the path of Carl Peers. There was a very clear sight of goal for the home number five but he swung at the ball without making any contact and Salford hurriedly cleared their lines.
In the eighteenth minute Josh Hine’s long throw-in from the left was flicked on by Gareth Seddon at the edge of the box and posession dropped nicely for Chris Lynch, the skipper’s first touch knocked the ball forward, out of reach of any defensive touch and the second was a nicely placed close range volley to beat keeper Matt Cooper at his right-hand upright.
With twenty-seven minutes played Marine captain Andy Nicholas pushed forward on the left then whipped in a very dangerous cross that Clark got up to head out, the clearance dropped temptingly for Mitchley and although his ambitious volley from just outside the box had power it flew too high to trouble Jay Lynch.
In what was generally a tight first half chances were not numerous but the Ammies put together a good move twelve minutes before the interval. Danny Webber’s pass found Stopforth who sent Hulme away on the right with a nicely judged ball. The cross fell towards the edge of the penalty area but Seddon had to take the shot quickly and didn’t get enough contact to worry Cooper in the Marine goal.
In terms of football, the first half finished with Salford absorbing some pressure, but there always seemed to be an Ammie head on the end of crosses or a well time challenge to prevent Marine from getting back onto level terms.
Salford had a penalty shout within ten minutes of the restart after Seddon’s shot hit the flailing arm of an airborne Sean Myler. We’ve seen these given but on this occasion the referee adjudged the contact to be purely accidental and play was waved on.
Clark intercepted a Marine pass in midfield before delivering one of his crisp passes out to Webber on the right flank. The former Manchester United forward set off on a run before dropping a good cross towards the far side of the six-yard box but from eight yards out Allen could only place an eight-yard header wide of Cooper’s right-hand post.
The Ammies looked fairly comfortable with their one goal lead but with seventeen minutes left to play they gave themselves some real breathing space. Seddon did well to put in a dangerous cross after chasing a lofted pass out to the left, but it appeared that the danger was over when a Marine head got some distance on the clearance.
Salford’s Clark picked up possession and played a one-two with Stopforth before advancing into a little space. From a distance of almost twenty-five yards out the midfielder let fly with a bulleted, low effort that gave Cooper no chance on its way to nestling inside his bottom right-hand corner.
A great strike from Clark who had put in an impressive shift in the middle of the park and he went close two minutes letter, dropping a nineteen yard right-of-centre free-kick inches over the crossbar.
After that there was simply no way back for Marine, despite their obvious commitment to the cause. Other than for some very late pressure on Jay Lynch’s goal the vocal travelling support had little cause for concern during the closing stages and were left to celebrate a good, solid two-nil away win.
