Depending on which of the Class of 92 you listen to, Salford City have designs on reaching either the Championship or the top flight in short order. They are a significant step closer to both now, this fourth promotion in five seasons sealing a Football League place, and nobody seriously expects the journey to end here.
The Neville brothers, David Beckham and their cohort celebrated wildly in an executive box as this game was put far beyond AFC Fylde early in the second half; after full-time they joined Graeme Alexander and his players on the pitch and, while this day may become a footnote in the club’s history if they have their way, it will surely go down as the one upon which they achieved lift-off.
“I’m so delighted for everyone that’s seen this club rise,” said the Salford manager, Alexander. He was appointed last May, three and a half years after the group of ex-Manchester United players had completed their takeover with the Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim. Salford’s progress has come at warp speed and will, no doubt, be expected to continue in that vein but this felt like an obvious juncture for all involved to pause briefly and bask in it.
That they could do so came after a performance that, while not three goals better than a competitive Fylde side, was ultimately convincing. Salford did not sparkle but made fewer errors and were clinical. They took the lead on the quarter-hour through Mani Dieseruvwe, who finished well after Danny Rowe’s clearance had pinballed off his teammate Luke Burke, and rode their luck until the interval. Andy Bond should have equalised, lifting over the bar at the end of a slick move, and Salford re-emerged to blow their opponents away in a 16-minute spell.
Carl Piergianni headed emphatically past Jay Lynch from a corner and then Ibou Touray was pleasantly surprised to see his misdirected cross fly in. The job was done; Salford’s vocal pocket of supporters, who brought some life to a crowd of 8,049 that was the smallest in this fixture’s history by some distance, could sing their promotion songs and the club’s famous backers could perhaps reflect that they once again have a team in red to be proud of.
“There’s a lot of players and managers who aren’t here today who have done a lot in the last five years,” Gary Neville said.
“We said we would [reach the Football League] in eight, which we thought was quite aggressive, but once we got momentum we thought ‘just go with it’.”
Alexander joked, in part anyway, that the next target was “to get as drunk as possible tonight”. Planning for League Two could wait another 24 hours, he explained, but Salford’s intent could hardly be clearer.
