Salford City are back on the road this weekend, as the Ammies travel to Cheshire to take on Crewe Alexandra in Sky Bet League Two (KO 3.00pm).
Karl Robinson’s side will be looking to bounce back following a defeat at home to Grimsby Town last time around. But according to the Gaffer, the mood at training this week has shown that the players are in a positive frame of mind heading into Saturday’s match at Gresty Road.
“The players' attitude has been brilliant this week, there’s a tremendous buzz around the place, even off the back of a poor result, but not a poor performance.
“We've got to make sure now that we really put the foot to the floor and start to use our dominance to take these opportunities when they come along and score more goals.
“It is always important that you win, but I do feel that moving forward that we have to use the pain and the anger that we have off the back of the result last weekend to rectify in forthcoming games.
"We’re going into a block of games now which will come thick and fast, four games in a very short period of time, and you know in that period you can be in a much different place than where we are today, but you've got to be ready to perform in those games.
“We've got to find a level of consistency within ourselves to make sure that when we go into these games, that we pick up more points than we have been of late.
"But the players have been really good, they've listened, they've learnt, they've took on board from the coaching points this week, and I'm looking forward to the weekend.”
After ten league games, our opponents for Saturday currently sit a point outside the play-offs positions, five points ahead of the Ammies.
Crewe Alexandra head into this weekend's game following an away point at Doncaster Rovers, however, at home The Railwaymen have won the last four matches in all competitions, and are fives games unbeaten, a run of results which has also seen Lee Bell’s side concede zero goals.
“They're good and they’ve got some really good players, and they play in a very attractive way.
"Crewe is always a difficult place to go, if we catch them on a good day they can dominate possession of the ball and they can hurt you, they've got a bit of power up at the top end of the pitch as well.
“So you know you're going to have to be on it to get anywhere near them, but equally I'm sure they'll sit there and know how good we can be as well on our day.
“We’ve just got to find that balance of our central areas, but also how many numbers we can get into their third to make ourselves even more creative, and hopefully we can do that at the weekend.”
The two sides have met on six previous occasions in Sky Bet League Two, with the Ammies currently ahead with four wins to Crewe’s two, with both of Alex's wins coming at this Saturday’s venue.
However, the last time these two team’s played at Gresty Road back in January, an excellent Matt Smith hat-trick on the day ensured the Ammies secured their first ever win at the ground.
Making his first start for Crewe that day was Huddersfield Town loanee Josh Austerfield. The midfielder went on to make 21 appearances for Crewe during the second half of last season, including featuring in the play-off final at Wembley in May, before making the move to the Peninsula Stadium over the summer.
Salford will be in white shirts, black shorts and white socks.
TEAM NEWS
Salford have no fresh concerns, and could be boosted with the return of Tyrese Fornah and Matty Young from international duty.
HOW TO FOLLOW
Saturday's game will be live for international supporters to watch on SCFC TV. Match passes cost £10 and can be purchased now online through the website. Once purchased, you can then watch either online, or download our mobile app, login, and watch on the go.
Supporters anywhere can listen to live match commentary with a commentary pass for £2.50.
Tickets will be available to buy from the away ticket office outside the away turnstiles at the Mornflake Stadium. If you purchased a ticket online, this is where you can also collect your ticket(s) from.
Crewe Alexandra (a)
