Alexander thrilled Salford have found goalscoring touch

Posted Monday, December 30, 2019 by PA

Salford manager Graham Alexander is delighted at his side’s new-found goalscoring touch following the resounding 4-1 win at local rivals Oldham.

After a run of one goal in three outings, it’s now seven in two for Alexander’s men in recording back-to-back post-Christmas victories thanks to two goals each from Jake Jervis and Brandon Thomas-Asante.

“Scoring has been an issue for us,” Alexander said. “You do the work on the training pitch and the analysis with the players, but ultimately the players have to go out and show the quality they have.

“The finishes were top-class. Jake and Brandon had chances for hat-tricks and we were showing better quality around the box.

“The players were superb. It was a big derby for us, playing Oldham who are just down the road, so we wanted to continue from our performance against Crewe and we certainly did that.

“We were a real threat in attack and defensively we were very compact and strong and disciplined in what we had to do.

“We scored some very good goals. I’m disappointed with the penalty and goal against us, but that’s nit-picking. We could have had a couple more goals having missed chances we would expect to take, but the players were excellent and we thoroughly deserved the win.”

Jervis found the net twice before half-time. His first came on 15 minutes and was followed up a minute later by a Thomas-Asante strike, before the midfielder headed in on 36 minutes.

Salford added their fourth three minutes into the second half through Thomas-Asante and, after Oldham’s Filipe Morais saw his 53rd-minute penalty saved by Chris Neal, the hosts netted a consolation through Desire Segbe Azankpo.

Oldham head coach Dino Maamria was left furious at the performance of referee Darren Handley, claiming that Thomas-Asante should have been red-carded for an incident in the 23rd minute that forced defender Tomas Egert to leave the pitch.

“I haven’t spoken about match officials for a while, but I was baffled today by some of the decisions,” said Maamria.

“Again, I’m not sure why it is but we have not been getting our fair share of the decisions.

“Asante should not have been on the pitch. All you have to do is look at Tomas Egert’s face where he got six studs in it, missed by the referee.

“We are disappointed losing 4-1 in a big game, but we have to give the players the credit for their effort. The scoreline was 4-1, but it was definitely not a 4-1 game.

“We started really well but gifted them a goal that was really poor to concede. Zeus de la Paz knows he should have saved it and from the kick-off we gave them a second goal.

“To give them two goals in a tight game is always going to make it difficult for us.”