History made as Salford beat Shrewsbury in FA Cup
Karl Robinson made 7 changes from his 2-2 draw with Fleetwood midweek, both goal scorers Woodburn and Okoronkwo, who scored the 98 th minute winner, are on the bench. Robinson has embraced the youth also starting 5 academy players and three under-eighteens make the bench after impressing midweek in the FA youth cup. Salford are unbeaten in their last four with two wins and two draws, displaying an increase in form moving up the table into 12 th.
Paul Hurst’s Shrewsbury came into the game off the back of a 2-0 loss to Barnsley in the league last Saturday aiming to improve upon their form, a victory in the Fa cup may start that, sitting 23 rd in League one. Shrewsbury have won one in their last five, a 5-3 win away against Crawley Town, from which head coach Paul Hurst will be looking to change today.
Salford started kicking from left to right towards the Shrewsbury fans who travelled in their numbers and made the majority of the noise in these early stages. Both teams exchanged jabs in the opening minutes of the game with no real opportunity being created, Salford hunting down Shrewsbury in packs when they lost the ball using the 3-man midfield to their advantage. An early chance for Salford beckons as the ball goes across the 18-yard box and is cleared by Shrewsbury.
The deadlock was broken in the 6 th minute through Salford’s wingers, the aforementioned first chance was cleared but the second was delivered from the left channel, a ball again across the 18- yard box was fired in by Mathew Lund after a blocked shot by the Shrewsbury defenders, a perfect start for Salford.
Salford again found joy in the wide areas through N’mai and Mnoga, both wingers displaying their mark on the game already. Salford’s pressing allowed them to make the better start out of the two teams, forcing the opposition back into their box not allowing them a foothold into the game. On the 11 th minute mark, a cross by Mnoga met Lund’s head however the shot went narrowly wide.
A chance for Shrewsbury was drilled across the box but cleared by Salford who broke into the opposition half as the referee allowed the game to play on despite the Salford winger being clearly pulled back, to the anger of the Salford faithful. Nmai again caused trouble on the left wing, beating his man, however the cross was blocked, the long throw from the blocked cross was claimed by the Shrewsbury keeper.
Shrewsbury quickly broke down the left-hand side and a deep cross by Benning was won and John Marquis fired home the equaliser. Shrewsbury’s foothold into the game was growing, progressing past the early set back. Shrewsbury struggled to cope with Salford’s press, locking the defenders into their own box and forcing a throw close to the corner flag on the right-hand side. A brilliant ball through was met by Nmai and a cultured finish was placed past the keeper, the linesman flagged for offside and a superb move was ruled out for Salford. Nmai had been Salford’s most influential player thus far and again on the 30 th minute a powerful run from the winger challenges Shrewsbury’s defence however a strong challenge leads to a Shrewsbury goal kick.
Some strange decisions by the referee caused a fairly comedic moment in the stands as a fan gave the referee a yellow card after not producing one for the Shrewsbury player. The game turned up a notch towards half time with many cynical fouls being given against both teams, the majority by Shrewsbury on the half way line. Close to half time, a corner delivered by Salford was not dealt with by Shrewsbury and the ball was volleyed in again by Mathew Lung who capitalised on a poor defensive display. Immediately, Shrewsbury retaliates directly attacking the Salford box but some brave goalkeeping by Young pounces upon the ball and thwarts the attack.
Another corner for Salford on the 44 th minute was whipped in ricocheting off a Shrewsbury defender, Shrewsbury quickly broke down the left-hand side but some excellent goalkeeping by Young saw the ball launched out of the Peninsula stadium into another postcode. A scuffle between Ashley and a Shrewsbury player sees the Salford man receive a yellow card, a seeming harsh punishment as he was the only player to be penalised in that skirmish. As the game approached half time both teams were giving the referee a reason to get his cards out with more cynical and tough challenges being put in, it would be wrongly argued that both teams weren’t fighting for the win at the end of that half.
A mistake by Matt Young was placed into the back of the net as the keeper fumbled the ball however the Shrewsbury equaliser was called offside, an early warning for Salford who needed to get at least one more goal if they want to progress into the next round of the FA cup. Salford started the second half quite conservatively, being seemingly unwilling to press with the ferocity of the first half and also not pushing men forward like they did in the first half. Their plan for the rest of the game had obviously changed, now being more focused on second balls and crosses forcing mistakes out of the Shrewsbury defence.
A good effort for Nmai caused the crowd to erupt as the winger forced a good stop from Savin, this had been Salford’s best chance in the half thus far as the clock ticked towards the 60 th minute mark. The game had been in a stalemate with this being the first clear cut chance since the break, neither Salford nor Shrewsbury could find the knock-out blow. The ball was again placed into the net by Salford, Kylian Kouassi calmly finished one on one with the keeper but the officials had their say again with that being Salford’s second disallowed goal, the score remained 2-1 to Salford. With the last 15 minutes of the game approaching, Shrewsbury began to gamble much more, flooding forward with more men in order to keep their Fa Cup dreams still alive. Salford again found joy on the break with another chance being missed by the Ammies.
As the game reaches the dying embers, Salford make Fa Cup history as 15-year-old Marshall Heys makes his debut as the youngest player to make their debut for a professional team in the Fa cup. Salford never looked out of place in their first-round tie against Shrewsbury town with Karl Robinson’s men never looking back since the veteran Lund’s goal in the 6 th minute.
Despite playing opposition in a high division Salford put in a valiant performance defending and attacking well in a result which can only breed confidence for the Ammies. The magic of the cup was again at its best through the debut of the youngest player to play for a professional team in the Fa cup through Marshall Heys. Shrewsbury never had the desire to match Salford and that cost them in this cup tie with the result becoming increasingly systematic of this season’s performances with no wins in the last four.
All images from @salfordcityfc on Instagram
