Salford City scored three goals for the first time in Sky Bet League Two this season in a dominant 3-0 win against Notts County.
Conor McAleny’s first league goal of the campaign opened the scoring in the first half, before Cole Stockton scored once in each half to top off a brilliant performance.
The visitors’ best chance of the game fell to Alassana Jatta in the opening 10 minutes; he was one-on-one with Matty Young, but the Salford shot stopper made himself big to save.
Minutes later Salford led after an error from Alex Bass as he tried to play out from the back. His pass to Dan Crowley was short, with Ossama Ashley sliding in to intercept and find McAleny, who had space to tuck away his shot.
Shortly after, another Bass mistake led to the ball ending up in the back of the net as he dropped a Ben Woodburn cross, with McAleny in close proximity to take advantage and score, but referee Paul Howard spotted a foul on the goalkeeper.
In the 30th minute, the Ammies did made it two after a deft flick through from McAleny to Stockton, who tucked away his first of the game from a tight angle.
The striker pounced again early in the second half to make the points safe, finding himself in the right place to tap the ball in after Kelly Nmai’s curling effort off the left was blocked by County’s Matty Platt.
From there Salford were controlled in seeing the game out, keeping a third consecutive clean sheet at home, and enjoyed the added bonus of welcoming Hakeeb Adelakun back onto the pitch after several weeks out injured.
Going forward, Karl Robinson believes his side have laid down the gauntlet to produce more similar results.
“I thought the performances of the players were second to none. Every single one of them showed a tremendous ability to take a game plan on, but it’s okay to say that when you need a willingness and a physicality to perform, and they had all of that.
“The players today have laid down the gauntlet for themselves. It shows that when we do things right that we can be a really good team. I just thought it was a really good all-round performance.
“We have really injected this team with youthful energy and a way of playing that is exciting, free and unpredictable.”
