SALFORD CAN SOAR, SAYS NEV

LESS than 24 hours after Salford City became a Football League club for the first time, co-owner Gary Neville was setting his sights even higher than League Two.

The former Manchester United defender owns a 10 per cent stake in the Ammies, as do former team-mates David Beckham, Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes.

And Neville said: “We’ve made some really good decisions, which have enabled us to get four promotions in five years.

“If we carry on making good decisions, accepting the going will get more difficult, we have a good chance of getting out of League Two in the next two or three years.

“We’ve prepared ourselves to be a Football League club. Our ground is League One compliant.

“We can carry on going through the leagues.”

All but Scholes were together at Wembley as goals from Mani Dieseruvwe, Carl Piergianni and Ibou Touray comfortably saw off the challenge of Fylde, 3-0.

Neville (above with Giggs at Wembley) said they wanted to be in the Championship in 15 years when they bought the club in 2014.

He added: “I know a lot of clubs who have money and are not successful. The aim was always to be as aggressive as possible to get into the Football League. It was a simple economic argument from day one.

“If you want to get out of the National League, a budget of £700,000 or £800,000 won’t get you out, and it will cost you two or three times as much to get out the longer you are down there.

“It’s cheaper to spend more and go up. It’s simple economics and we have the ability to do that. The dream would be to reach League One and see what we do from there.”