A club-best run in the Carabao Cup came to an end for Salford City with a 4-0 defeat to Burnley under the lights at The Peninsula Stadium.
The Premier League side were clinical as they took a 3-0 lead within half an hour, scoring the only three chances of the game to that point, before adding a fourth late in the second half.
Sander Berge opened the scoring with a back post header from a corner, delivered by Anass Zaroury, and the Moroccan set up Jacob Bruun-Larsen for the second that he lifted over Alex Cairns. Dara O’Shea poked home the third from close range after a quickly-taken free-kick wasn’t dealt with by Salford, and Wilson Odobert completed the result with an effort from 12 yards after cutting into the box from the left.
In truth there wasn’t too much more that Burnley created as they managed and controlled the game against a resilient and hearty Salford, Cairns was called into action a few times but produced the required saves to keep the score down.
However, and perhaps understandably with the options available at the minute in addition to the gulf in league standings, the Ammies weren’t able to test Arijanet Muric too strenuously.
There are exciting and happy memories to take from upsets in Rounds One and Two, and Neil Wood says that the focus for his side is correcting league form.
“It’s a really tough ask to do on the night, we’ve had a bit of success in this competition, we’ve had good experiences against Preston, against Leeds, and again tonight, it’s an experience for the players to be able to play against a Premier League team and you don’t forget that no matter what the result is.
“It’s been nice to be in it, we’ve had some good nights at Preston and against Leeds, which brings excitement, it brings the club together, it brings confidence to the players but the league is the most important thing for us. We have got a lot of injuries, we have to take tonight on the chin, we have to get together and go for it against Newport.
"The start of the game we had our defensive shape, they had a lot of the ball around the two centre backs and the keeper which we knew they would. They’re waiting for the trigger, they’re waiting for the mistake, they’re trying to pull you out of positions to run in behind and we had to stay really disciplined and focused with that. I thought we did that then we conceded off a corner which takes that plan away, and I think the free-kick it’s a poor free-kick, we switch off, they nip in behind our line and score so really tough goals to take.
“We knew it was always going to be an uphill battle and all credit to them, they’re a good team.”