For April 30th I'm going back 5 years to 2016 and the Northern Premier League (NPL) Play-Off Final between Salford City and Workington.
I love Play-Off Finals. At least I love the ones where York City aren't involved. Unless York win of course! Then I love those ones too. But only after the final whistle has been blown and you know that promotion has been secured. For fans of one of the teams involved, Play-Offs are a time for high anxiety and shredded nerves. Your team has gone through the regular season (as it tends to be called in North America) to secure a Play-Off spot. Then they've successfully navigated through a Play-Off Semi-Final (and even a further qualifier in the case of the National League these days). Now they've reached the Final and it all comes down to this. A whole season's work can be made worthwhile or has simply been wasted depending on the result. For neutrals, Play-Offs are pure drama and that's why I love them. I suppose a couple of centuries ago I might have enjoyed public hangings too for the same reason?
Salford City have gone from being a fairly nondescript non league club on the outskirts of Manchester to being media darlings over the last seven years. In 2014, "the Ammies" (a reference to the club's earlier name of Salford Amateurs) were taken over by the so called "Class of 92": a bunch of former Manchester United players. Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and eventually David Beckham each own 10% of the club, with Singaporean businessman and Valencia owner Peter Lim taking the rest.
In addition to funding from a wealth of millionaires (yes that's the collective noun for more than one millionaire), the Class of 92 also brought publicity to the Ammies. Bucket loads of it in the form of a compelling fly on the wall documentary series. I loved watching it. The series brought to the fore a number of the club's stalwart backroom staff who were suddenly thrust into the limelight of an urgently upwardly mobile club. This included the Chairman (Karen Baird) who was asked to stay on to school the new owners in the issues facing the club, the maintenance man who was clearly uncomfortable with the sea change in his club and the lady who sold coffee and burgers from the hatch next to the main stand. Real characters all.
You might have imagined that the Ammies fans would be delirious. Far from it. Initially they were deeply unhappy with the decision to change the club's badge and colours from tangerine to (Manchester United) red. The Class of 92, seemingly led by Gary Neville, initially stuck with manager Phil Power but he was sacked in early 2015 following Salford's failure to be top of the NPL Division one North table. A new management duo of good cop/bad cop programme cover stars Bernard Morley and Anthony Johnson were appointed and the side were crowned NPL Division One North champions that same season having won 15 of their remaining 17 matches.
The following season, the heady heights of the NPL Premier Division was where today's featured game took place. The club had finished third in the league behind Champions Darlington and Blyth Spartans and were therefore thrust into the Play-Offs. Having beaten Ashton United in the Semi-Final, Salford were to play Workington for an unprecedented promotion to the National League North.
The game was suitably dramatic for TV! Before an attendance of 1,967 plus a documentary audience of thousands more, we witnessed the Ammies falling behind after just 4 minutes. An Ammies equaliser was quickly followed by Workington retaking the lead after 20 minutes which they held until deep into the second half. Salford were certainly in the ascendancy in that second half and, much to the relief of their fans, equalised for a second time after 79 minutes. The winner came just 8 minutes later, not from substitute and star of the documentary, male model Gareth Seddon but from Jordan Hulme who stuffed the ball over the line after several attempts. Scruffy? You bet! But crucial.
Since 2016, Salford have continued their upwards trajectory by winning the National League North title in 2018 followed by promotion to the Football League after winning the 2019 National League Play-Off Final, Indeed, they must love sudden death drama at Salford because they're in with a shout of promotion from League 2 via the Play-Offs this season too!
CRB Match No. 2096
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