Alexander delighted as Salford find ‘clinical edge’

Posted Friday, December 27, 2019 by PA

Graham Alexander was pleased Salford finally got their rewards in front of goal after victory over Crewe brought a five-match League Two winless streak to an end.

Richie Towell’s thunderbolt handed Salford an early advantage which was doubled by Brandon Thomas-Asante inside 12 minutes. Crewe’s Harry Pickering halved the deficit but Ryan Wintle’s late own goal restored the Ammies’ two-goal cushion.

Ammies boss Alexander was happy seeing his side recapture their ruthless streak in the final third, after rising to 11th in the table.

He said: “I think the performances over the last three games have been as good as that, without the clinical edge in front of goal.

“So to get those two goals quite early in the game gave us a lot of confidence and made it difficult for Crewe and we felt reasonably comfortable in the first half.

“We pressed them really high, we were really aggressive in our approach and it’s paid off with two fabulous goals.

“They’re a good team, Crewe, we’ve seen that all season, we certainly saw it at their place, but today was a good response.”

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

Towell went close to adding his second, before Thomas-Asante doubled Salford’s lead after brushing past Christian Mbulu to slot past Jaaskelainen.

The Crewe stopper saved Towell’s shot from range and Ammies top scorer Adam Rooney’s free header either side of half-time.

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 parried Chuma Anene’s effort wide but 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, so let’s make that statement before we try and dissect why. Salford were the much better team, certainly in the first half.

“We’ve had a lot of the ball in the second half and deservedly 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.

“I could go on about illnesses and injuries and all the rest of it but I won’t because we had a team certainly strong enough to beat Salford.”