Man City 8 Salford 0: Gary Neville stays away as Class of 92 pals watch their side get smashed and Grealish finally nets
MAYBE that’s why Gary Neville stayed away…because he knew the old Class of 92 would get a hard lesson off Pep Guardiola’s wonder-kids.
Perhaps there should be no head-scratching after all, as to why Salford City’s gobbiest owner felt the biggest game in their history wasn’t worth breaking into his ski holiday for. What a pity.
He would have seen a Salford hero after all – just one wearing sky blue, in local boy James McAtee led City’s own crop of rookie talent on an FA Cup turkey shoot.
McAtee, dubbed the Salford Silva by his own fans, hit a hat-trick, while fellow youngsters Divin Mubama and Nico O’Reilly also got in on the act.
Neville will be glad he missed it.
Mind you his fellow co-owners from that golden Fergie generation were here to fill him in.
Ryan Giggs in the visiting dugout alongside manager Karl Robinson, with Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt watching from the directors’ box.
Looking on with fingers crossed that they would get a first hand glimpse of the romance of the Cup.
City’s own crop of kids meant it was more like the irony of the Cup.
Although no doubt Gary, in that makes-you-love him “I know best” way of his, would have found a way for his League Two high-fliers to stop Pep’s pups had he been in town.
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Mind you given the way Manchester City effortlessly sidestepped this third round banana skin, it’s highly unlikely.
Some of Guardiola’s old guard joined Neville in staying away. Although in their case, because of the manager’s call.
Most surprising of all, incidentally, being skipper Kyle Walker, not even on the bench at a time he needs games more than anyone in a sky blue shirt.
Yet this wasn’t a night for discussing fading stars – more a salute to rising ones.
Those young kids on the block already suggesting a bright future for City.
Of the four youngsters Guardiola chucked into his line-up against Salford, three were on the scoresheet – and given the other is a centre back, that’s pretty much as good as it gets.
Although for all that, it was the established “old” hands who laid the foundations and opened the floodgates after barely ten minutes.
After Hakeeb Adelakun let the ball get away from him,Matheus Nunes fed Jack Grealish, and when he moved it further left, Jeremy Doku finished with a low drive via the post.
City were two up when Nunes clipped over a cross and Mubama, a 19-year-old signed from West Ham for a £2m compensation in the summer, couldn’t miss from a yard out.
Two minutes before the break O’Reilly – a kid Pep raved about on the pre-season trip to America – showed why the Spaniard rates him so highly with the most clinical of finishes.
The second half was barely underway when Mubama was in on the act again, although this one was more down to Salford’s kamikaze crew at the back.
Liam Shephard and then Ossama Ashley combined to give the ball away to the City kid, then upended Doku when he passed inside, and Grealish buried the penalty.
Time, then, for McAtee to step up…and boy didn’t he do just that, with a magnificent prodded volley from the Frenchman’s low cross.
It was starting to get embarrassing.
Even more so when Doku took his own turn at landing a penalty prize when Curtis Tilt blocked with his arm.
Salford were on their knees by now but McAtee was by no means finished in terms of his own scoring, he was only getting started, in fact.
His second goal was actually the result of a shot from substitute Phil Foden – some player to throw on from the bench – which he controlled and finished himself.
And the treble came up when Grealish picked him out with a cross and McAtee picked another path to goal.
Even some of the home supporters were starting to feel for Salford, who were simply glad that it ended as an eight campaign.
If only Gary had been here to see it….still, there’s always a copy of the DVD.