‘A massive draw’: Salford ready for their biggest game at Manchester City
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Karl Robinson’s side have won six games in a row and travel to the Etihad with a chance to put themselves on the map. Salford City are in the middle of their finest spell as a Football League club on the pitch as they prepare for the biggest game in their history. The Ammies travel fewer than five miles on Saturday to face Manchester City in a pivotal spell that could shape their future.
![[Will Unwin]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2024/10/03/Will_Unwin.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Karl Robinson’s side have won six matches in a row without conceding to thrust them into the League Two automatic promotion spots and have reached the FA Cup third round for the first time. Salford won four promotions in five seasons in the aftermath of the Class of 92’s purchase a decade ago but have plateaued in the fourth tier since 2019. After three mid-table finishes and a playoff semi-final, Salford finished 20th last season and the 15-year ambition to reach the Championship by 2029 seems more fantastical than when Gary Neville announced it.
![[Salford City owners Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/da4d1f4bce40d797a4ce1c5b08eeab5170c38676/0_211_6298_3779/master/6298.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The club witnessed a rapid rise through the non-league system from the Evo-Stik North to the professional ranks, backed by the Neville brothers, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and more recently David Beckham. Giggs is the director of football and can be found in the dugout with Robinson after agreeing to help on the coaching side but the others are keeping a lower profile compared with the early days of publicity and documentaries, declining to speak to the national media in the buildup to Saturday.
After the excitement of the early years in the spotlight, League Two has shown the potential for Salford may not match the owners’ grand plans. Their average attendance of 2,800 is the third-lowest in the Football League, they made a £4m loss in their most recent accounts, plans to move to the 12,000-capacity AJ Bell Stadium failed and they do not own their training ground, renting a facility from Manchester United at Littleton Road for a small fee. They had to decamp to the indoor centre at The Cliff, another United-owned site, this week during the cold snap.
