Bradford Park Avenue 0 Salford City 2

SALFORD City completed a holiday double over Bradford Park Avenue with a 2-0 victory at Horsfall Stadium to leave the hosts in the National North drop zone.

The Ammies had won the reverse fixture on Boxing Day by just one goal and it looked as though that would be repeated until James Poole added his, and Salford's, second seven minutes from time.

That knockout blow was landed as Avenue were enjoying their best spell of the game and threatening an equaliser.

Goalkeeper Jay Lynch had made a superb reaction save to deny Avenue skipper Ryan Toulson and the stopper punched the resulting corner off the line before another shot was blocked.

Fifth-placed Salford counter-attacked and a shocking error from Toulson gifted the ball to Poole, who then drilled in a low shot from the edge of the area.

Poole, who also scored the winning goal as the Ammies knocked Avenue out of the FA Cup earlier in the season, had given Salford a 19th-minute lead with an angled drive through a packed area.

Avenue displayed a lot of desire and effort but they lacked quality in certain areas and contributed to their own downfall with poor distribution. They were also lacking luck, especially with their share of decisions from the referee.

That point was not lost on manager Mark Bower, who said: "It was another difficult afternoon and Salford deserved their win. They are a good side and they play in a certain way that makes them hard to beat.

"But we thought there were two handballs in the build-up to their first goal. The second one, the killer goal, I don't know how two of the most blatant fouls during the game were missed as they broke away.

"I don't like complaining about referees because they do a difficult job – but I just thought this one made some big calls today that all went in favour of just one side. He has changed the game with the key calls that he made.

"There were some positives to take from it and we have had a difficult run of games against sides that will be in the top six at the end of the season, so we are still looking upwards.

"Wayne Brooksby's debut was one of the positives. I thought he had a very good game and we're working on keeping him longer than the initial one month's loan spell from Harrogate Town."