Karl Robinson reminds Salford players of standards despite win at Crewe

Posted Sunday, January 28, 2024 by PA

Karl Robinson feels Salford are still underachieving despite recording an impressive win at in-form Crewe.

The Ammies are unbeaten in four games since Robinson replaced Neil Wood and they proved too strong for an Alex side chasing a fifth consecutive win to maintain their promotion push in League Two.

The Railwaymen found Matt Smith almost unplayable on a day when the giant striker claimed the matchball, sealing his hat-trick with an 85th-minute winner to add to his second-half equaliser and an early opener.

But despite Robinson’s promising start to life in charge, the Salford boss let his players know he and the club have high standards.

He said: “Crewe are a really hard team to play against and we made changes at half-time that made a difference.

“I thought we dominated most of the game in the second half. If we can keep this going forward then we can make an impact.

“It’s about players playing at the level of performance we expect as we know we’ve got good players.

“But we are still underachieving and our league position shows that. The players have been good since I’ve come in and we have to carry that on.

“For us to come from behind and win here was good, a large part of our performance was very, very good.

“Salford came here last season and were 3-2 up and ended up losing 4-3.

“We didn’t come here to draw. Salford should be winning games and it is all about winning.”

Crewe led at half-time as goals from Aaron Rowe and Elliott Nevitt wiped out Smith’s fourth-minute opener.

But Smith responded with two more goals in the second half to take his tally for the campaign to 19.

Robinson said: “Matt has got to score goals. That is his job as it is the keeper’s to keep out goals.

“But when I spoke to the owners when I came in I knew I had a striker who was capable of scoring that many goals.

“He is that much of a threat and he’s shown that again and he’s paying the club back with the goals he gets.”

Crewe manager Lee Bell says his players quickly need to move on after a below-par display.

He said: “We were below our usual standards and this league can bite you if you are not at it.

“This has really got to sting us. I can’t fault the lads for what they were trying to achieve and they have outstanding character and belief, which we showed getting ourselves 2-1 ahead.

“But Matt Smith is hard to stop and while we did the work to do that he was the difference today.

“You expect us to cope with a game like this better, but you have to credit Salford for slowing the game down. We’ve had a really good run of results and we can’t let this knock us off track.

“It’s hard to take positives and I’m looking more at areas where we need to improve.

“But Elliott Nevitt was a real threat again and his overall attacking performance is getting better week in and week out.”