Salford City fans know all about the long history of the club, which was formed as Salford Central Mission in 1940 before changing to Salford Central in 1947 and adopting its current name in 1989.
However, it’s in recent years that the former amateur club has really made an impression.
Since, the takeover by former Manchester United players, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, and Paul Scholes, plus businessman Peter Lim, in 2014, the Ammies have gone from strength to strength.
Another former United stalwart, David Beckham, joined the party when he purchased shares in 2019.
Right now, Salford City are making their fans just as happy as United’s.
While the Red Devils are second-favourites to be champions, in Premier League betting, the Ammies are among the favourites to achieve promotion from League Two.
Of course, there is still a long way to go in the season, but so far, so good. However, City may be showing a slight chink in their armour after failing to achieve a win in their last five outings.
They were hoping to start addressing the situation in the scheduled home game against Cambridge United last week but the game was postponed due to a frozen pitch.
Disappointment of postponement of Cambridge game
Both teams were hoping that the game, scheduled to take place on 26 January, would happen.
However, Salford were forced to call the game off after the Cambridge team had already arrived at the Peninsula Stadium.
Gary Neville graciously offered to pay Cambridge’s travel costs; a fact that was greatly appreciated by Cambridge chief executive Ian Mather. Neville also announced that fans would be refunded the money they paid to watch the game live online.
This is probably scant compensation to fans who were looking forward to potentially closing the gap on Cambridge at the top of the table. Currently, the Ammies are four points adrift of the leaders with a game in hand.
Transfers unlikely to be a major factor
Despite having to wait longer to get firmly back on track in the league, City still have plenty of opportunities to achieve the success that fans are looking for.
However, it does not seem as though transfers will have a major say in this.
Manager Richie Wellens spoke about how tight the club’s finances are and explained that current players would need to move on before new players arrive.
He also mentioned that there are a couple of players who need to leave to get first-team football. So, although new blood may have an impact this season it can certainly not be counted on as an important factor.
It will be interesting to see whether Salford do secure promotion this time out.
They are certainly in the mix to compete right now but there are still plenty of difficult games to come in a season that continues to be far from usual.
Featured image credit: Anthony Parkes / Salford City Stadium / CC BY-SA 2.0
