Cup replay won’t distract Ammies
GRAHAM Alexander says Salford City will be fully focussed on their League Two showdown with Swindon Town this afternoon, despite their looming FA Cup replay with Burton Albion.
The Ammies will travel to the Pirelli Stadium on Tuesday evening, with a tie against Oldham Athletic in round two awaiting.
However, Alexander insists his players will focus on their league duties first as they look to continue their climb up the table.
“Swindon are a big club at this level,” the Salford boss told M.E.N. Sport.
“Whenever they’re in this division, they’ll always be one of the favourites at the top end and they’ve started the season really well, so we know it’s going to be a tough game.
“But, if we look back at our previous games, there haven’t been any easy ones anyway so I’m not expecting it to be any different.
“What we’ve got to focus on is what we bring to the game, how we perform, and I’ve been really pleased with the players over the last few weeks.”
Salford are unbeaten in five games in all competitions – facing League One opposition in their last two outings (versus Burton in the FA Cup and Tranmere Rovers in the EFL Trophy) – and Alexander believes their recent experiences put them in a healthy
Graham Alexander position. He said: “Playing against good teams, you have to improve your performance and be as best you can to get results, and we have got results.
“That stands us in good stead, it’s about continuing our performances and if we get our focus right on what we can do, that’s our best opportunity of winning.
“There’s a couple of niggles in the squad, so we’re just going to look at them to see if they can be ready, fully fit. It’s important that whoever we pick is as close to 100 per cent as possible, it’s never the case once you start the season, everyone’s carrying bumps and bruises but as long as it doesn’t impact on their best performance they they give themselves the best opportunity at being picked.
“We’ll have a look at them before finalising our team but we have enough available already to put a very good team out there, so that’s what we’ve got to focus on.”
Oldham, meanwhile, are without a game after their match at Stevenage was postponed due to international call-ups.
ROCHDALE will continue to defy their ‘freakish’ run of injury issues as they look to land a league and cup double over the next four days.
Dale take on Coventry City at Birmingham’s St Andrew’s ground in League One this afternoon before their FA Cup first round replay against Wrexham at the Crown Oil Arena on Tuesday evening. With Jim McNulty and Paul McShane sidelined in recent games, Rekeil Pyke, Robert Sanchez and Ryan McLaughlin working their way back from injuries and Rhys Norrington-Davies and Luke Matheson on international duty, selection has been a real headache for Brian Barry-Murphy and his backroom team.
Dale beat Bradford City 2-1 in the Leasing. com Trophy on Tuesday evening with a largely youthful team and assistant manager Lee Riley insisted they would continue to battle positively through the current adversity.
“Coventry City at Birmingham is a massive game for us, we’re all doing our best in terms of the staff and players,” he said.
“Everyone can see that we’re quite light on numbers and that’s not through anyone’s fault, it’s just been a bit of a freakish time in terms of injuries. Some of the players who featured on Tuesday deserve special praise. I think four of them started the game at Wrexham on Sunday and it’s pretty much unheard of to go and play a game two days later, it’s normally Saturday to Tuesday, but we had to call on players to go again on Tuesday night.”