Man City find their level v Salford as Man Utd legends watch their toy get smashed to pieces

Half of Salford City’s Class of ’92 ownership group was in attendance to watch Manchester City smash their League Two toy to pieces in the FA Cup third round.

The Salford Community Stadium is a mere 19-minute drive from the Etihad Stadium but it was not location that made this a tasty tie, but the fact the club third in League Two with six wins to nil in a row going into the match are owned by six Manchester United legends.

The result was a formality from the second the two teams were drawn against each other but this aspect added spice, especially considering the clubs have never played against each other before.

Founded in 1940, Salford were taken over in 2014 as former Red Devils players Nicky Butt, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Paul Scholes majorly invested alongside Peter Lim, whose 50 per cent stake was purchased by Gary last August.

Scholes and Butt were in the stands but both Neville’s and Becks had better things to do, which does not surprise us. Giggs, though, was in attendance in a different capacity. As a co-owner, Giggs got himself back on the grass by turning his director of football role into juggling an assistant coach role to help Karl Robinson.

This was the first time many of us have seen Giggs on TV for years and the first we have heard his name in months. His controversial past is well documented and makes his presence in the dugout surprising. Somehow, Jonathan Pierce and Danny Murphy on commentary did not mention him until 53rd minute and claiming his or Scholes and Butt’s participation in the match would have made a difference was not uttered until there were 20 minutes left with City 7-0 up. “It wouldn’t be seven if Nicky Butt and Scholesy were in the middle of the pitch,” Murphy said. Zzz.

The football was astoundingly one-sided. We expected a comfortable Man City win but how comfortable it was definitely surprised us. City’s neighbours were absolutely destroyed with three extremely successful ex-Man United players in attendance. We just know Gary turned his TV off at 5-0 and Beckham probably was not aware this was happening today. Phil? Just chilling on the England ladder, probably.

City took eight minutes to open the scoring. Jeremy Doku’s shot probably should have been saved by highly-rated Salford goalkeeper Matty Young. It came after a decent Salford press forced City to go long, with the second ball falling to Ossama Ashley, who miscontrolled it and strolled back as the hosts scored on the counter.

It was 2-0 when 20-year-old Divin Mubama scored his first City goal. You might not have heard of him but he is probably the second best striker at the club; due to a lack of depth and not him being a wonderkid.

He joined from West Ham in the summer, has one England Under-20 cap, has been an unused substitute three times in the Premier League this season, has scored two in two in the Premier League 2 this term and scored once in 18 Hammers first-team appearances, netting against AEK Larnaca in a Conference League last 16 second leg in 2022/23.

Salford actually should have scored before half-time but were incredibly wasteful, if not silly in their decision making. Kylian Kouassi had their best chance of the match but took a touch instead of shooting, directing himself away from Ederson’s goal. A minute later, Matty Lund did the same before Hakeeb Adelakun sliced a decent chance wide.

City instantly made them pay when young playmaker Nico O’Reilly – playing left-centre-back – put a tidy shot past Young. Nice finish, awful haircut and a first Cityzens goal for him.

It got really out of hand in the second half. “Salford the orchestrators of their own problems here,” Pierce said after they gave away the ball in the box and then a subsequent penalty when Jack Grealish – playing through the middle – was crunched. He stepped up and confidently sent Young the wrong way.

After the Giggs bingo came in, James McAtee staked a claim with his first Etihad goal for City and eventually completed his hat-trick. What a day it was for him, yet it will probably only increase his chances of a January transfer, not more game time under Pep Guardiola.

The other goal came from Doku, who also won and scored a penalty, though it was a handball against Curtis Tilt, so won’t have even got a fantasy assist having scored it himself.

It was so comfortable for City but Salford will feel they should have at least scored a goal to show for their efforts. Would a 50-year-old Scholes and 49-year-old Butt have made a difference? Definitely not, Mr Murphy.

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