A WEEK or so ago, Gary Neville took to Twitter to suggest that Darlo had the second largest budget in the league, behind York and ahead of Stockport. Based on Saturday’s performance at Moor Lane, it’s fair to say that his Salford City side weren’t able to defy the odds yet again and bridge the financial gap to Martin Gray and his moneybags outfit. What a shame!

Despite trying a bit of psychological warfare straight out of the Sir Alex Ferguson playbook of how to take the pressure off your own side, you could feel the expectation of a home win in the ground. Everything was set up for Salford to coronate their transition to a full-time club with a run of the mill victory over the noisy mob from over the hills. Oh how it didn’t play out like Neville hoped.

I’ve got to be honest; I didn’t expect the performance we put in. At times last season, we looked disjointed and pretty weak in defence but on Saturday, we looked solid, organised and dare I say pretty comfortable in the face of the increasing pressure from the home side. Salford managed to work their way through on a couple of occasions where they really should have been more clinical but on the whole, we shielded Adam Bartlett’s goal very well getting men behind the ball and allowing little space for Salford to do whatever they thought they were going to do.

Having had the territorial advantage for much of the first half and having had a host of set-plays that didn’t really create clear cut chances bar the Dave Syers miss, I feared we would get to half time and rue a missed opportunity. So, with that in mind, when David Ferguson was the quickest to the ball when it rebounded off the post to put us ahead just before the break, there was almost a sense of relief as much as celebration. It was a goal we deserved.

The second half was inevitably more about us dealing with the increasing pressure from the home side. Based on what we’ve seen in the documentaries, I’m sure Jono and Bern will have been using their finest French to illicit a response. As it was, we coped admirably and when Ferguson bagged his second, it was job thoroughly well done.

There will be some who see the result as being about playing Salford early doors while they’re still getting to know each other and working out how they play together. I subscribed to that theory until I thought about how much work they’ll have done during pre-season. The likelihood is Salford will have worked together more during the last couple of months than we will for half a season. Against a part-time team, they should have hit the ground running. As it was, we didn’t let them.

It terms of performances, there were no negatives. Everyone played their part which was great to see so early in the season. However, the one player that I want to pick out for particular praise is Terry Galbraith. He was my man of the match for the way he dealt with Michael Nottingham, one of the finest players in this league. Throughout he nullified arguably Salford’s biggest threat. By taking him out of the game, Salford looked short of ideas going forward.

Hopefully, we’ll follow up this excellent first performance with a repeat showing on Wednesday at home to Gainsborough Trinity. There’s no reason why not. We’ve set the bar high, let’s keep it there now. I’m also hopeful that Saturday’s performance might provide the motivation for an extra four or five hundred on the gate. Fingers crossed!