Star date: 5th May 2013

SALFORD CITY END SEASON RUFFLING PEACOCK FEATHERS

Salford City 1 Lancaster City 0

Salford City ended a turbulent season on a high by doing the treble over Lancaster City, thanks to a Chris Thompson goal twenty seconds into the second half.

Former Newcastle United and QPR defender, Darren Peacock, managing his first game for Lancaster, had to endure chants of `You're getting sacked in the morning' from Salford fans…

Match report and photos here…

So, a season that seemed to go on for a zillion years, finally ended yesterday on a high as Salford City beat Lancaster City 1-0, thanks to an early second half goal from assistant player manager Chris Thompson.

It was a fitting finale, as Thommo has been one of the steady hands in a season full of postponements, suspensions and a managerial casualty. Without any fluency, Salford - at one point in the play off spots - lost the plot after Christmas, winning just a handful of games as the season unravelled.

The highs were a close FA Cup thriller against FC United, and a close thriller in the Manchester Premier Cup Final against Mossley. Another major plus was finding a top keeper in Player of the Season, Ritchie Branagan, who again showed his pedigree to stop Lancaster City yesterday with at least three world class saves.

Lancaster, already beaten twice at home in the League and FA Cup by Salford earlier in the season, were hoping to end their own season well, as former Newcastle United and QPR defender, Darren Peacock, took over for his first game as manager…

…Instead, once Chris Thompson had stroked home a shot from the edge of the area twenty seconds into the second half, he had to endure Salford fans serenading him with `Sacked in the morning, you're getting sacked in the morning'…

This came after an equally balanced first half that saw a Nathan McDonald cross roll across the Lancaster goal line with a defender just nudging it away from Leon Williams as he poised to tap in, and, at the other end, Ritchie Branagan performing heroics to keep the scores level.

Once Thompson had scored, however, Salford took command, Jamie Rother forcing a save from the Lancaster keeper and a few other promising moves breaking down at the final moment. When Lancaster did break forward, Branagan proved to be an unbeatable barrier.

Final score: a comfortable 1-0 win for Salford, ensuring a slightly disappointing 16th finish but with hope in abundance for next season.

And next season, it appears that former League club Darlington will be in Salford's league, along with Scarborough Athletic who have also secured promotion from wherever.

Their fans are already gearing up for coming to Salford with classic bit of stereotyping from their fans forum, Surfing Seadog, where a commenter believes Salford City will be the most difficult fixture…

"…cos I know that with the guns of Lower Broughton and the baseball wielding gangs of Ordsal we are stuck in the middle and i'm not sure where the knife users live. However when the Salford Star announces that the 'moneybags' of Scarborough Athletic are in town it will be 'Bees drawn to Honey'.

"I think we may need to hire a fleet of armoured cars on that day. As an example a couple of local pubs are surrounded with razor wire (to keep out burglars), have steel shutters over the windows (to protect from drive by shootings) and defensive walls of breeze blocks I think you can say, this is an interesting place.

"Having said that I have had a drink in a couple of pubs and had no problems but as I was unemployed at the time I fitted right in with the milieu. Hope I haven't painted too bleak a picture of the people and the place…"

Classic stuff. Boy are they in for a shock! And hopefully on the field too…

Roll on next season…

Photos by Andrew Goudie