Here’s Nick Ames’ report from Wembley.
Let’s recall that this is about Salford’s players, too.
PLAYERS RECEIVE THEIR MEDALS 🏅 https://t.co/e28KuzSr3I
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) May 11, 2019
The Salford players make their way up to collect the trophy.
FULL TIME |
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) May 11, 2019
WE ARE GOING UP, SAY WE ARE GOING UP!
Salford City have been promoted to @SkyBetLeagueTwo for the first time in our history!#WeAreSalford 🦁🔴 pic.twitter.com/PY0qJhlaNq
Salford City are promoted to the Football League!
The celebrations can begin now and there are big hugs in the exec boxes. They were clinical where Fylde were wobbly. The EFL has a new club and the Class of 92’s dream has been achieved, though they are doubtless working on the next plan already, with the Championship the goal. Fylde will be back at Wembley next week for the FA Trophy so Dave Challinor will need to lift them for that.
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90 min: Four minutes added on. Those will be Salford’s last four minutes as a non-league club for a while. And Gary Neville is wearing a broad smile.
88 min: GN deep in chat with Nicky Butt and the not unimportant billionaire Peter Lim in the stands (not to be confused with nine-dart pioneer Paul Lim). There are smiles, big smiles.
86 min: Into the last five and both teams tired now, with Fylde probably feeling the weight of a long season coming to naught. The Salford players know that tonight they get to party with Giggsy.
83 min: Salford set to make history as the first club to climb from the sixth division to the fourth in consecutive seasons. Up in the execs, David Beckham is in close conversation with David Gardner. beau of Liv Tyler, no less. No sign of Liv just yet.
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82 min: Attendance watch: the given gate is 8049, described as “generous” by someone on the scene. That size of crowd would not fit into Moss Rose, but Gigg Lane, Bury, hardly a neutral ground for GN or Pippin, would fit the crowd comfortably.
80 min: Bradley gets down the wing, and has chance to get in a cross. It goes straight to Chris Neal, who makes another save. Salford’s keeper has had a fine match.
78 min: Off comes Deseruvwe, who scored the first goal, for Rory Gaffney, no relation of Dean.
76 min: Gary Neville is probably hatching a plan already for next season. His players are now taking an age over a free-kick. They almost grab another through Piergianni, who has been imperious in the air but this time, Neil Byrne does get it clear.
74 min: This game seems to be over as a contest. One last throw of the dice for Fylde as Andy Bond is replaced by Crawford, the teenager.
70 min: There are 20 minutes for Fylde to try and rescue this. Philliskirk drives in a shot, and claims a corner, which Chris Neal in Salford’s goal comes to claim, colliding with teammate Maynard while doing so.
68 min: Beckham is on his mobile, so is Pippin Neville. Off comes Danny Whitehead, who has played well, as Mark Shelton comes on. The Fylde fans look pained, while the Salford hordes are being noisy.
66 min: Peter Jackson emails in: “Couple of things....Fylde have as a main sponsor Cuadrilla and last week the club facilities were hired out to Farage and his awful party where he and Anne Widdecombe tried to drag the country back to the 1950’s.....so cmon Salford!”
Looks like you get your wish, Peter.
65 min: To their credit, Fylde still trying to push on, but this looks in vain, even considering the crazy scenes we have viewed in soccer this week.
63 min: This could hardly have gone any better for Salford, and any worse for Fylde.
Goal! Fylde 0-3 Salford (Touray, 61)
And that’s that, surely. It was something of a freak goal. Touray cut down the wing, and tries to aim in a cross, but he mishits it a little and the ball rattles off the far post and in.
Gary Neville tries to play it cool, but the rest the Class of 92 go radio rental.
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60 min: Fylde have 30 minutes to save themselves but a free-kick by Francis-Angol, which flies miles out, is a microcosm of their afternoon. The nerves have got to them, that much seems apparent.
58 min: It’s worth noting that the Class of 92 contingent went utterly bonkers when that goal went in. Fylde make a change, and Harper will replace Reid.
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55 min: Salford sub: Rodney on for Mafuta.
54 min: “We are going up,” sing the Salford fans. Fylde desperately need a goal to find a way back into this one. Their defending, so good all season, has let them down. Piergianni had a free header for that second.
Goal! Fylde 0-2 Salford (Piergianni, 53)
Salford score again! Whitehead makes space by staying calm and cutting inside, to play the ball to Maynard, who has a sight of goal. His shot is deflected behind. The corner comes in and Neil Byrne loses his man, and Piergianni heads in.
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51 min: Touray’s cross evades Whitehead, who needed to be a couple of feet taller to get his head on the ball.
50 min: Fylde go on the attack, with Francis-Angol forging on. Reid almost found himself in a scoring position. Chances at either end already. That’s promising.
48 min: Close for Salford! Dieseruvwe got on the edge of a cross and it looked like his stooped header had gone in. The Class of 92 certainly thought so.
46 min: No changes by either manager at half-time.
We are back underway at Wembley...45 minutes to go. Or ET and P, of course.
Andy Hamilton emails in: “Why are they playing this game at Wembley? Surely logistically and also with the number of fans in attendance, playing at somewhere inbetween the 2 teams would make sense e.g. Blackburn?”
Think that crowd would fit into Macc Town’s Moss Rose, to be honest. They have made a decent racket, mind you.
Half-time: Fylde 0-1 Salford
Halfway there for the Class of 92 but their team has had a few scares, with Fylde growing in danger as that half went on. It has been nervy out there, as well it might be.
45 min+6: Much of the crowd having gone for a half-time pint, the players and coaches have become audible. Both teams a little loose after this long half of football but Salford are the team having to do the defending.
45+3 min: Chris Neal, the Salford goalie, makes a high catch on a ball pumped into his area. He’s not had much to do in this half. Fylde have had shots but most of them have ended up in the stands.
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45+2 min: Salford’s Wiseman gets to the byline to play in a dangerous cross and the ball is headed away by Haughton.
45 min: Maynard drives forward for Salford but is robbed just as he shapes to shoot.
There have been six minutes added on for those pair of Fylde injuries.
44 min: Salford sitting back a bit and trying to play on the break, waiting perhaps for another Fylde mistake like that which gifted them their goal.
42 min: Nigel Moore emails in from the 1950s: “E by gum, lad, ain’t Liverpool on t’coast as well?” Danny Rowe, meanwhile, has a better shot than those he hit previously, but it’s with his less favoured left foot.
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40 min: Hogan’s free-kick is headed down by Piergianni in the direction of Dieseruvwe but the ball slipped away from the Salford striker.
38 min: Maynard’s foul on Haughton sets up a Fylde free-kick. Danny Rowe fancies this one, but hits the wall again, to jeers.
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36 min: That was a lengthy delay for Tunnicliffe, but he will be OK to play on, with Terry Butcher-style bandage.
34 min: Some running repairs on an injured Tunnicliffe, who took a whack to the head. In the stands, there is a glimpse of Ryan Giggs, who is yawning.
33 min: What a chance! Andy Bond steams through on to a sweet through ball but misses the target. Fylde having much the better of this.
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32 min: Nice run from Whitehead sets up a Salford attack but Fylde seem to have recovered their defensive composure. And they have picked things up in attack, too. They look the more likely next scorers at this point.
30 min: Neal forced to make a save at last as Croasdale, gets a chance to shoot. Corner to Fylde is taken short and Rowe again whacks the ball into the crowd to the sound of jeering.
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28 min: Jeers from the Salford contingent as Danny Rowe whacks the ball into the Wembley stands.
27 min: Bradley tries a long one, coming out of midfield to shoot. It sails wide, with Salford keeper Neal having it covered.
25 min: The ball drops to Piergianni, who swings and misses, and fires his shot over. Somehow that’s given as a corner. Pond climbs highest and heads wide, but it looks like a foul was being awarded.
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23 min: Gary Neville still has his arms folded, and best mate Becks is being ignored. This one means a lot.
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21 min: Fylde’s Rowe tries a long shot, but can’t get much power on it. The spark of the early moments seems to have gone.
20 min: And off goes Burke, and on comes Nick Haughton, a former Salford player.
18 min: Fylde set to make a sub, and it looks like Burke, who got an early injury and was among those slack for the goal, cannot carry on.
16 min: That was poor defending from Fylde and smart finishing from Dieseruvwe. Salford offered a route into the EFL thanks to a series of mistakes. Fylde boss Dave Challinor looks aghast.
Goal! Fylde 0-1 Salford (Dieseruvwe, 15)
Redmond’s ball in, Danny Rowe fails to deal with the danger and Dieseruvwe converts from close range. It was a gift and he snaffled it up.
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13 min: Salford fans making themselves heard now. I suspect a bit of TV amplification, but they are getting behind their teams. Up in the stands, Gary Neville is trying to look calm, but has his arms folded.
11 min: Geoff Wignall emails in: “Err, I think a drive along the West Lancs coast would also include Morecambe, John. Fylde aiming to make it a quintet.”
Yes, my mistake. A hotbed of football.
10 min: Yellow card for Salford’s Nathan Pond for a high tackle and Fylde have a free-kick. Danny Rowe can only hit the wall.
8 min: Burke limps on, and it looks like he might be OK. Up in the crowd, Brooklyn, Cruz and Romeo are looking on. For Salford, Wiseman fires wide...that was close.
6 min: Luke Burke has what looks like a hamstring injury. That could be the end of a player who had looked so dangerous in the early stages. He did it just kicking the ball out and when unchallenged.
5 min: Reid almost got on the end of some fine work from Luke Burke. Fylde look dangerous from the start.
3 min: The size of the crowd, which our spy estimates is less than 5,000, means we can hear the players speak, even if one set of fans are making a bit of a racket and singing the “Allez Allez Allez”. What with Salford’s leanings, would bet those are the Fylde lot.
1 min: Ooof, close for Fylde. Reid almost gets on the end of some great work from Bradley.
And away we go....the EFL beckons for one of these teams.....
Salford are without Adam Rooney, who hoiked his groin taking - and missing a penalty - against Eastleigh, and the Scot is replaced by Macclesfield Town legend Danny Whitehead.
The National Anthem rings out, and the band can be heard. Chris Casper, one of the Class of 92 who never quite made it, is in the execs with his old mates. He is sporting director at Salford, the type of role GN wants Big Red at Old Trafford to have.
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Just to say that David Beckham is at Wembley, presumably dropped off by Victoria with the Metropolitan Line down today. Him, Gary Neville, Pippin Neville and Nicky Butt have been doing the media rounds and are swelling a crowd that doesn’t look too large.
"What we've done so far we're really proud of."
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) May 11, 2019
"This is the most nerve-wracking it's been coming into a game!"
The Class of 92 are at Wembley with Salford dreaming of the Football League. pic.twitter.com/70KY16DAy2
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Here are the teams.
Here’s how @AFCFylde line-up this afternoon! 👇 https://t.co/OXf2snxoVS
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) May 11, 2019
STARTING XI
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) May 11, 2019
Here is today's team! One change from the Semi-Final with Danny Whitehead in for Adam Rooney!#WeAreSalford 🦁🔴 pic.twitter.com/4bLNsRlwAw
Preamble
Want to feel old? Think back to the days when the Neville Brothers were Fergie’s teacher’s pet and Nicky Butt was a tousle-haired tyro in the midfield, while Ryan Giggs was the new George Best, Paul Scholes never said anything at all while David Beckham didn’t even own a mobile phone to talk on while driving. Doesn’t seem too long ago, does it?
Now those lads, those Fledglings, are middle-aged businessmen with their eyes on the prize of delivering a previous non-League club to the Football League for the first time in its history. They were put through the mill last week by Eastleigh in a rather entertaining penalty shoot-out, now for Fylde.
David Haythornwaite, the owner of Fylde, is just as ambitious as the Class of 92, and hopes to make his club the fourth in a quartet of West Lancs EFL entities, to follow Preston, Fleetwood and Blackpool.
Wembley is the venue, and Gary Neville is sure to be very nervous indeed.
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