Gary Neville has agreed to be a guest commentator on Salford City’s live streaming site when the League Two club take on Manchester United Under-21s on Wednesday night. As a co-owner of Salford he will be at the Peninsula Stadium regardless, even if his loyalties will inevitably be conflicted when the club bought into by the Class of ‘92 meet the class of 2020 in the Checkatrade Trophy.
Whether or not Neville can put his Manchester United allegiance wholly behind him, the fact is that this eagerly anticipated Manchester derby – the first time the two clubs have met in a competitive game – is already in danger of being overshadowed by the draw for the second round of the Carabao Cup, made on Sunday. That takes Salford to Everton, the real Everton, not their academy side. City’s coach, Graham Alexander, will find himself up against serial Champions League winner Carlo Ancelotti, and quite possibly James Rodríguez and Allan.
Since the Neville brothers, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham joined businessman Peter Lim to invest in Salford six years ago their rise has been inexorable, with each season bringing new horizons and pinch-yourself achievements and occasions. Attractive fixtures against Premier League opponents are just the latest head-turning events, but though Neville appreciates the significance of the upcoming games, he would like the Salford players to adopt a hard-headed approach.
“It is a dream for a lower-league club to be playing Everton at Goodison Park, reaching play-off finals at Wembley and preparing for Manchester United on a Wednesday night, but when these things come along you don’t get the time to stop and enjoy it,” Neville said. “United and Everton are huge games, but the reality is that the league matches against Exeter and Grimsby either side are just as important and the players need to know that.
“From our point of view promotion is everything, cup games are a bonus. As a group we all learned during 20 years playing for Manchester United that it is unacceptable to raise your game for a cup tie that might be more appealing, then just think you can turn up for the mundane league games. It doesn’t work like that.”
Neville should know, though in point of fact Salford have some insurance against cup disappointment this season. They are already at Wembley, due to meet holders Portsmouth in the final of last season’s competition. That occasion was postponed rather than cancelled in April, because around 50,000 tickets had already been sold, and the EFL recently confirmed it would still go ahead at some stage during this season as long as fans were allowed in to see it.
Salford have played at Wembley before, having gained league status with a fourth successive promotion by beating AFC Fylde in the 2019 play-off final, and now include Warren Joyce among their coaching staff, a trainer who as recently as four years ago was working with Ole Gunnar Solskjær in charge of Manchester United reserves. No one at Salford is remotely likely to underestimate United Under-21s, especially as Neil Wood’s side enjoyed a degree of success in the EFL Trophy last season. Placed with Rotherham, Lincoln and Doncaster in the group stage (this season they will play Rochdale and Morecambe as well as Salford) United Under-21s not only topped their group before going out to Tranmere in the knockout stage, they beat a Rotherham side eventually destined for promotion to the Championship.
“That was one of the real highlights of the season,” Wood recalled. “I can still remember Brandon Williams playing in Ethan Laird for the first goal and all the fans cheering. We played really good football, and later in the season when you saw how well Rotherham did it showed we gave a good account of ourselves.”
Sadly, there will be no fans cheering whatever the result at the Peninsula. The background to all these games is one of financial hardship for lower-league clubs disproportionately affected by the loss of gate revenue. Neville is one of many who believe the Premier League could afford to be more generous, but in his commentary seat on Wednesday he can take a break from worrying about the balance sheet.
“This is another big moment for us, it might be the Under-21 side but it is still Manchester United,” he said. “The big shame is that we have to play it behind closed doors.”
