Salford’s late season gamble on Gary Bowyer faces stern opening test at Exeter

On Monday, Richie Wellens became the latest victim of Salford City’s ambitious owner’s hopes of continuing their climb up the football pyramid.

Wellens was relieved of his duties following a 2-0 weekend defeat at Cheltenham Town, bringing to an end his five-month spell at the club that lasted just 25 league games.

Salford’s owners, the group of former Manchester United players known as the ‘Class of 92’ along with Singapore billionaire Peter Lim, have made no secret of their desire to reach the Championship by the 2029/2030 season at the latest and clearly felt Wellens could take them no closer to that goal.

Since initially investing in the Greater Manchester club in 2014, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes oversaw four promotions in their first five seasons, introduced both a youth team and a women’s side, and re-developed the club’s Moor Lane ground.

Their success even encouraged former team-mate David Beckham to purchase a 10% stake in the club in January 2019, further allowing the club to use its sizeable financial backing to invest heavily in the playing squad.

The first two seasons in the EFL have seen the Salford project stall somewhat.

Last season was brought to an abrupt end by the outbreak of Covid-19, meaning the Ammies finished the campaign 11th on points per game.

This created pressure on former manager Graham Alexander to start the current campaign strongly, yet even though he began the season with a run of five games without a defeat, he was dismissed in early October.

Wellens was brought in from Swindon on the back of winning the League Two title last season, and was considered a major coup with Gary Neville saying “his philosophy to play attacking football” was why he was the man to make their vision for the club a reality.

However, winning only nine of his league games in charge to leave Salford outside of the play-off places looking in meant that not even their recent Papa John’s Trophy win against Portsmouth at Wembley was enough to avoid a change being made.

Neville and co. moved quickly to bring in a replacement, with Gary Bowyer effectively borrowed from his role as Derby’s under-23 manager to take charge until the end of the season.

Bowyer has had success in the fourth tier before, guiding Blackpool to play-off glory in 2017, and with 11 games of this campaign left to play it was clearly felt that he had enough time to potentially repeat the trick with Salford.

“We’ve got 11 games now to go and play some really aggressive football with and without the ball, and see where it takes us.

“Whatever you’re competing in, whatever you’re doing, you want to win. We’ve got to try and get as many victories as possible out of these 11 games.”

– Salford City Manager Gary Bowyer

His first game in charge sees him take on Exeter City on Saturday at St James’ Park.

Separated by just two points in the League Two table, Exeter and Salford understandably have similar ambitions for the remainder of the season, but the way they’ve operated over the past few years could hardly have been more different.

Whilst Salford did not have a youth team until 2017, Exeter’s system of producing young players has been an important part of their philosophy as a supporter-owned club.

Ollie Watkins call-up to the England senior squad has seen another round of plaudits come the way of the Grecians’ academy set-up. The now Aston Villa striker has followed the likes of Ethan Ampadu, Matt Grimes and Jordan Storey in establishing himself at a higher level after graduating at St James’ Park, making the club a tidy profit in the process.

It has been reported that the Grecians will receive £75,000 after Watkins made his international debut against San Marino as part of the deal that took him to Brentford in 2017, and the Supporters’ Trust that has run the club since 2003 has made it clear that these sort of fees received are split between improving the academy, supporting the club’s infrastructure, and the playing budget for manager Matt Taylor.

Unlike Saturday’s opponent’s process of hiring and firing, Taylor has been in charge at Exeter since the summer of 2018. He led the team to a ninth-place finish in his first season in charge before losing out in the play-off final to Northampton last year, and his ability to continue nurturing the club’s young talent has earned him plaudits throughout.

Academy graduates Alex Hartridge, Jack Sparkes, Josh Key, Archie Collins and Matt Jay have all been regulars throughout this season, and a potentially season-ending hamstring injury for home-grown winger Joel Randell has been a real blow for their hopes of another top seven finish.

A midweek defeat to Oldham means the Grecians are currently on a three-game losing streak, holding them back from making a play-off spot their own already.

“We had enough chances on Tuesday night, it just didn’t quite happen for us in front of goal.

“We’ve learnt that we’ve got to be better when the ball is in and around our 18 yard box, and when the ball is in and around their 18 yard box. That’s where the game is won and lost.

“We played some great football but came away with nothing, so this weekend we might play poorly but take a a scrappy 1-0 where the ball goes in off someone’s backside.”

– Exeter City Manager Matt Taylor

An opening day 2-2 draw between the sides back in September was arguably an early sign that they would be fighting it out in a similar part of the league table. Even though there has been plenty of change in the Salford dugout since, there has been little to separate the sides in terms of their on-field performances.

Regardless of the merits or faults of the club’s different ways of operating, a win for either side on Saturday could go a long way towards helping them achieve their goals for the season and making discussions about which approach is best seem immaterial.

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