Salford City failed to end their poor run of form as they drew 1-1 with playoff rivals Crewe Alexandra.
It was a vibrant atmosphere in sunny Salford with fans ditching the hat and coats for shorts and shirts.
After switching sides, the Ammies got the ball rolling in M7 attacking towards the West stand faithful and soon created the game’s first clear-cut opening when Tyrese Fornah pierced the Crewe defence to find Hakeeb Adelakun but, after beating his man with some fancy footwork, the skilful attackers driven delivery evaded everyone in the box.
On the back of his standout performance in Salford’s 2-2 draw with Swindon Town in midweek, having recently returned from injury, Kelly N’mai had fans applauding him throughout the early stages of the match as he continued to pose the side’s biggest threat.
Stephen Negru came close to breaking the deadlock as he headed over Luke Garbutt’s freekick, as Salford controlled possession but lacked the clinical edge to take the lead.
Against the run of play, Tom Lowrey came close to giving the hosts a lead at the break when the midfielder wrapped his foot around a free-kick on the edge of the box, but his effort flew narrowly wide and the sides went into the interval level.
Salford came into the second-half still retaining the ball, throwing extra numbers forward to try to break the deadlock. Crewe prayed on the attacking approach, happy to play on the break.
Salford finally got their goal well into the second-half when Ben Woodburn saw N’Mai peeling off from his man on the far left and delivered a precise ball just in range to entice keeper Filip Marschall to race out of his goal. N’Mai won the footrace, took it around Marschall, and fired home the opener into an empty net.
Crewe woke up from the setback, desperately looking for a way back into the match. After 77 minutes the visitors’ squandered a golden opportunity to draw level direct attack saw a long ball knocked on for attacker Chris Long to race clean through on goal.
He forced keeper Jamie Jones onto his right but was denied as Salford’s number one stretched just enough to keep it out.
The visitors were determined to take advantage of the decrease in Salford’s tempo and with ten minutes to go, the visitors made their pressure count.
Connor O’Riordan produced a moment of magic striking the ball from 30 yards out. His right-footed attempt fired into the back of the net leaving Jones no chance of stopping it.
O’Riordan’s effort turned this game on its head, turning the atmosphere into more of a tennis match with the amount of back-and-forth action.
After N’Mai won a free kick in a dangerous area, Garbutt struck the resulting set piece well but was denied by the crossbar.
Substitute Matthew Lund nearly won it for Salford late on with his right-footed attempt, forcing the keeper to make a save.
Crewe won another knock on catching Salford on the break. Jones produced another one on one save denying the visitors a winner.
There was drama towards the end as Rosaire Longelo believed he was fouled deep into the opposition’s half by Matus Holicek.
The referee didn’t penalise the incident which sparked a back-and-forth between the two players. They were both respectively shown yellow cards which infuriated the home crowd.
Boos and chants of “you’re not fit to referee” rang around the aggrieved Peninsula as Zac Kennard-Kettle called time on an entertaining contest.
Ammies, you did us proud once again, with us to the very end 🫡
11 to go. True Faith. pic.twitter.com/gKk3ZB1oaF
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) March 8, 2025
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