Crawley Town v Salford City preview: Reds hope the Ammies' troubles away from home continue

Crawley Town start three consecutive home games with the visit of Salford City on Tuesday night, where they will be looking to gain back-to-back wins for the first time since the turn of the year when they beat both Forest Green and Bolton away from home.
Salford City's Ian HendersonSalford City's Ian Henderson
Salford City's Ian Henderson

The Reds inconsistent form is proving costly in their play-off bid but they did pick up a fantastic 1-0 win last time out at Tranmere and will look to build on what was one of their best performances of the season.

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Crawley changed back to a 4-4-2 system at Tranmere with Nick Tsaroulla dropping out the side and they played some wonderful football at Prenton Park, scoring one of their best team goals of the season.

Tom Nichols’ fantastic finish after a great passing move saw the Reds pick up a deserved three points in what was a brilliant team performance.

However, as John Yems said in his post-match interview it doesn’t mean anything if Crawley don’t go and get a result on Tuesday night and a win would take them three points behind their opponents Salford with a game in hand.

It’ll be a case of looking for more of the same from Crawley, with not only brilliant attacking play but also solid defensive play. Joe McNerney once again put in a very solid defensive display and he has been brilliant since coming into the side and Tony Craig may struggle to get back into the team over McNerney due to his impressive performances.

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Tom Nichols and Ashley Nadesan look like they have gained some more confidence and are causing defences problems once again and with the pair having four goals between them in the past three games.

They’ll be in for a tough task against the Salford City defence, which is the best in League Two, conceding just 26 goals in their 32 league games so far. The Ammies tend to set up with three centre backs and a pair of wing-backs, which creates a solid defence, which teams struggle to break down.

Salford have conceded just once in their last three games, with that coming from the penalty spot last time out against Scunthorpe.

Their main struggle is coming at the other end where in recent weeks they have struggled for goals, not scoring more than one goal in their last six games. Despite this they have a prolific goal scorer in Ian Henderson who is well known for scoring plenty of goals and he has 11 to his name this season. He’s certainly a threat, who has great finishing ability, as demonstrated over the years, mainly for Rochdale in League One.

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If Salford’s away form matched their home form they’d be cruising in the automatic promotion places but there struggles on the road are what is holding them back this season. The Ammies have only managed to pick up 17 points on the road this season, compare to 33 at home, a record that sees them unbeaten at the Peninsula Stadium this season.

They’re a top quality side on their day but Crawley will be hoping their troubles away from home continue and they can claim all three points on home soil.

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