In-form Ammies still have room to improve
MANAGER Graham Alexander insists his Salford City side still need to improve, as he refuses to get carried away after successive League Two victories.
The Ammies have beaten Walsall and Cambridge United in their last two outings, scoring four and conceding none in the process, but Alexander is eager to remain levelheaded.
“It’s a long season and we’ve got a lot of players playing at this level for the first time,” he told M.E.N. Sport. “We’ve finally got a squad now – with the lads going out on loan – that’s manageable and we can really get down to some concentrated work.
“We know we’ve got good, honest players who want to work their socks off and make their mark on the Football League. But like I’ve said, we’re babies to this level and we have to learn each week how we can improve, and we’ve certainly done that the last couple of weeks.”
Salford City had only won two of their opening 11 fixtures since promotion to the Football League, but their recent upturn in form has coincided with a switch in formation to a traditional 4-4-2, and Alexander has hinted that he’ll stick with his new system.
“We’ve tried to settle everything down and tried to put a long-term plan in place with the way we want to play. We can tweak it every now and then, but we’re not really going to come away from that. I think that will settle the players’ minds down going into it (games). “Previously I was chasing different formations and trying loads of different players, probably because we had too big of a squad and wanted to be fair with everyone, but we’ve seen
Graham Alexander that that wasn’t going to take us forward. We’ve tried to narrow the group, settle on one way of playing and concentrate on that, and hopefully that will continue the improvement.
“It’s no guarantee of winning every game, but we have to feel confident in what we’re going to do, and I think the players have done that in their last two games.”
Since winning their last two fixtures, the Ammies now sit 14th in League Two and are only four points beneath the play-offs, yet the boss is refusing to pay any notice to their position.
“All I’m looking at is the performance and the improvement in the players, because I know long-term over the next six or seven months, that’ll pay dividends.
“At this stage it’s about making sure we’re a good unit that can create chances, keep clean sheets and keep improving each week, and that’s where we’ve got to focus on. In October, there’s plenty of time so we need to continue to work to improve.”