Pre-Season Friendly
Salford City 3
Webber 54, Chadwick 71, Madeley 88
United 3
Fletcher 8, Weir 37, Harrop 50
From ManUtd.com.
Rain had been falling for most of the day and showed little sign of relenting as the match started with United wearing the change strip of white shirts and black shorts so as not to clash with Salford’s red and white. Luke Giverin, formerly with United, started for Salford while Sadiq El Fitouri, once of Salford, was in United’s line-up.
The game began slowly with neither side showing much adventure but then, in the 8th minute, Salford captain Chris Lynch was adjudged to have brought down Ashley Fletcher. The Reds striker was unscathed from the incident and was quickly back on his feet to blast the spot-kick past goalkeeper Jay Lynch.
Salford centre-forward Sam Livesey had a great chance to grab the equaliser after taking the ball round Joel Pereira, but his shot narrowly missed the target. Shelton Payne also went close for the hosts on the half-hour when his well struck free-kick thudded against the upright.
United doubled the lead eight minutes before the break when James Weir fired home from close range to send his side in at the break 2-0 up.
The Reds looked to have put the game beyond Salford’s reach in the early moments of the second half after Josh Harrop had scored his side’s third goal with a fine curling shot. But Salford had other ideas and strikes from former Reds forward Danny Webber and then Matt Chadwick put the home side right back in the game.
Finally, with barely two minutes remaining, Sam Madeley hit the target with a low shot to level the scores and claim a deserved draw for Salford.
United: J.Pereira, Varela, Love, Borthwick-Jackson, El-Fitouri, Pearson, Rothwell (Reid 72), Fosu-Mensah, Fletcher, Harrop (Redmond 60), Weir. Subs not used: O’Hara (Gk), Mitchell, Riley.
It should be noted that United played in their Nike strips, confirming speculation that the Reds will play in their old strip until August.
