Salford City slipped to a second consecutive defeat on the road with a 2-1 loss at Port Vale.
Goals either side of half time from Antoine Hackford and Rekeem Harper saw Darren Moore’s side open up a gap between the Valiants and the Ammies, despite Hakeeb Adelakun’s late penalty offering Salford hope.
The home side had the first opportunity of the game when Sam Hart’s cross was met cleanly by Ryan Croasdale with his head in the middle, but Jamie Jones was well-placed to make the save. At the other end Luke Garbutt swung a free-kick in from the right that Matthew Lund stretched for at the far post, but he could only prod wide.
Just past the quarter-hour mark Haji Mnoga’s long throw-in dropped in the middle and asked a couple of questions, but Stephan Negru couldn’t answer the final one as he sliced his shot over.
Hackford was presented with an excellent opportunity to put Vale in front in the 30th minute when he headed a George Byers cross towards goal, but Jones pulled out an excellent save to his left to push it away.
The Ammies responded with an attacking spell, but Jon Taylor was kept at bay by a wall of white as he tried to drive forward and Cole Stockton was nudged out of the path of Adelakun’s floated cross.
That was Stockton’s last action in the game as he was withdrawn shortly afterwards, and 16-year-old Will Wright came on for his league debut in his place. Within a minute the academy striker was stuck in as he put a sliding challenge in to win the ball off Byers and keep an attack alive; Garbutt’s cross was flicked on in the box by Wright to Mnoga, but his shot across goal went wide.
A minute later Salford were behind when Taylor was dispossessed on halfway by Ronan Curtis who raced through the middle and slipped a pass through for Hackford to go one-on-one with Jones, and place a low shot beyond the stopper. Negru had a chance to respond in stoppage time after a ball into the area from Garbutt, but the chance was cleared.
Karl Robinson was forced into another change at the break with Ros Longelo taking Luke Garbutt’s place, but within a few minutes the Ammies trailed by two when Curtis Tilt and Negru crossed paths in the box, with the ball falling for Harper to lash into the top corner.
Chances dried up until the visitors were handed a lifeline in the 77th minute when Mnoga was brought down by Byers in the box. Adelakun calmly stepped up to roll the penalty down the middle and beyond the anchored Amos.
Kylian Kouassi had a late chance to snatch a point after being played in up the left, but at the top of the box and off-balance he fired over.
After another tough fixture, and in the context of having nearly a dozen senior players out, Karl Robinson was still proud of his players' efforts.
“We’ve got players who played today with an illness, we’ve had a number of players who’ve travelled down and not felt well, some have played today really ill, and I’m proud of what they’ve done. I think it’s 12 or 13 first team players not available at the end of the game through injury, illness, and the injuries are not just one-dimensional hamstrings, there’s so many different injuries.
“One thing today we’ve not lost the game through it, we’ve lost the game through one or two human errors. I’m really pleased with the effort, I’m really pleased with the attention to detail and how hard they’re willing to work, and again they’ve showed a different side to them and one that I’m really proud of. I have to stay positive because that’s what we do.
"No one remembers how many runs you go on in the middle of the season; the back end of February, March and April, that’s when people remember you for. That’s when it matters, that’s when you look for people to stand up and be counted."
Backed by nearly 300 Ammies in the away end, the Gaffer also praised the loyal support from the terraces despite the result.
“I think the growth of the football club has got a massive part to do with the fanbase increase and we’ve asked of that over recent weeks, and maybe our results haven’t been right, they’ve still stuck with us.
"In my career I’ve never seen away fans back the players when they don’t win games, they’ve shown a relentless desire to support this team and we’re forever thankful for that, it never goes amiss either.
"They know how hard we’re truly working, they know our honesty, they can see right through us because there’s a rawness to us at the moment, and we thank them from the bottom of our heart continuously."
