Ammies fall to first defeat in 21 games

SALFORD City missed the opportunity to go top of The National League after falling to a first defeat in 21 league games at Chesterfield.

Midfielder Andrew Kiwomya opened the scoring in the second minute to settle a hostile atmosphere, and doubled the lead in the 60th minute to give The Spireites a first league win since August.

The Ammies had a couple of opportunities to respond as substitute Dennis Politic had a shot well saved by Callum Burton with Carl Piergianni’s shot from the resulting corner cleared off the line by Jerome BinnomWilliams. The centre-back had goalbound header blocked by Burton before Liam Hogan and Nathan Pond both headed wide. However, despite a first league loss since August, manager Graham Alexander was upbeat and praised his players for their achievements.

“They’ve been absolutely superb for four months now, and sometimes you need a little slap across the chops to remind us all about the realities of football and we’ll learn from today.

“I can only give the players a load of praise for what they’ve done over the last three or four months, to go 20 games unbeaten is difficult at any level of football but they’ve shown great ability, great fitness, and great focus to do that but it’s come to an end today. Their keeper’s made a couple of fantastic saves, we’ve just missed a couple of good chances.

Next up for The Ammies is the visit of Gateshead in the FA Trophy First Round on Saturday.