Ammies want to end year on high at home
SALFORD City head into their final home fixture of the calendar year looking for a first win at the Peninsula Stadium since the October 12 as they host Crewe Alexandra in League Two.
They haven’t picked up many away wins recently either with their last victory in the league coming Newport County who they beat 2-1 at the beginning of November.
Despite this, City manager Graham Alexander feels his side are starting to click after their 1-1 draw with Bradford City at Valley Parade where he named an unchanged side for the game.
“We’d tried to do that recently, but we’d always lost one or two players whether it be to injury, suspension or to international.”
The Ammies faced Crewe at Gresty Road in September with Adam Rooney opening the scoring taking advantage of Crewe goalkeeper Will Jaaskelainen’s mistake.
However, City capitulate in the second half conceding four goals with a brace from Tommy Lowery and goals from Chris Porter and Harry Pickering losing the game 4-1. Ammies boss Graham Alexander blamed the defeat on his side’s mindset:
“There were two games of football. One game in the first half we were in total control, conceded no efforts on goal and were one nil up.
“It’s a mentality issue for me. You
Graham Alexander on facing Crewe in September are certainly not tired within the first five minutes of the second half. It’s a mentality thing, a focus.”
The Alex have been one of the surprise packages of the division as they now sit in third with only one loss in their last nine games in all competitions under the management of Dave Artell – a former Gibraltar international teammate of Salford’s Scott Wiseman.
Artell’s side will be backed by a sell-out East Terrace but is wary of the threat City pose.
He said: “That first half at home
OLDHAM head coach Dino Maamria has called for his side to put in a performance ‘that the club will be proud of’ when they travel to face Morecambe today.
The Latics boss was full of praise for his side’s attitude in their 2-1 comeback win over Crawley last weekend and will be looking for similar at the Globe Arena.
That result saw Oldham climb to 19th in the League Two table as they moved seven points clear of the relegation zone.
Today’s opponents come into the game off the back of an impressive 2-1 home win against Newport, which lifted them out of the relegation places.
Saturday’s result also ended a run of seven league games without a win, with their last victory coming against Colchester on October 19, four games before the arrival of new manager Derek Adams.
“I’m sure Morecambe will be well up for it, especially after their win against Newport,” said the Latics head coach. “A new manager coming in, I think they’ll be on a high as well and it should be a good game. We’ll be ready for it, but Morecambe is never an easy place to go.
“Our fans will come over in numbers like they did in Carlisle and what we’ve got to give them a really good performance.”
they made it very difficult for us. We’ve got to be prepared to go to a tough place. I think they’re having a good first season, they’ll be a relatively pleased.
“They’re only going to get stronger because they’ve got the resources and an experienced manager.”