Alexander calls for an Ammies repeat job

GRAHAM Alexander wants Salford to pick up where they left off on Boxing Day when they visit local rivals Oldham.

Salford’s five-game winless streak in the league came to an end as efforts from Richie Towell and Brandon Thomas-Asante and a Ryan Wintle own goal secured the points against Crewe, with Harry Pickering scoring for the visitors.

With bragging rights at stake today, Alexander is keen for Salford to keep up the good work.

He said: “We spoke to the players on Christmas

Eve about the responsibility of preparing for games.

“This is when our professionalism has to kick in. Everyone else is in holiday mode, eating and drinking what they want, but we can’t.

“It’s important they understand the responsibilities that they carry and if the performance and work ethic (against Crewe) is anything to go by then they’ve done the right things.

“We need to continue that this week because we’ve got a big game at Oldham for local bragging rights and we obviously want to continue where we left off today.”

Salford took the lead early on when Towell’s rocket from long range flew past Will Jaaskelainen.

Thomas-Asante doubled Salford’s lead inside 12 minutes after brushing past Christian Mbulu to slot past Jaaskelainen.

Alex skipper Perry Ng nearly capped off a flowing move 15 minutes from full-time, but Chris Neal pushed his shot onto the crossbar.

Neal was powerless to stop

Pickering’s shot eight minutes from full-time.

Salford’s two-goal cushion was restored before the end when Crewe’s Wintle had the final touch from an Ammies corner.

The defeat ended a four-game unbeaten league run for the Railwaymen, who remain third in the table, and boss David Artell could not argue with the end result.

He said: “The second half was better, but the first 45 minutes was really poor, I have to say.

“We got beaten by the better team.

“We’ve had a lot of the ball in the second half and got a goal and we think we might just salvage something out of a mistake-laden afternoon, and we go and shoot ourselves in the foot again.”