Salford City apologise to their fans after they suffered an ’embarrassing’ 3-1 opening day defeat to Barnet in League Two.
Two sides that are eyeing a promotion this season, but it Barnet who came away with all three points, not the start the Ammies would have wanted.
Salford have made some rather eye-catching signings this summer, including Luke Molyneux (from Doncaster), Macaulay Langstaff (from Millwall).
Other additions include the likes of Elliot Bonds (from Fleetwood), Abraham Odoh (from Peterborough), Sam Long (from Bromley), Will Norris (turned down deal with Wycombe), Will Aimson (Wigan contract expired) and Joe Powell (Rotherham contract expired).
But Barnet proved too strong in the first game of the 2026/27 season, goals Oisin Gallagher, Charlie Lakin and Kabongo Tshimanga putting the Bees in control with Adebola Oluwo getting a consolation for Salford.
Interviewer: Well, Peter, your thoughts after that once a day?
Salford boss Peter Cklamovski: Yeah, I know. We’re we’re heartbroken, but it’s on us because the performance wasn’t where it needed to be. We’re disappointed, and it’s a hard one to swallow because it’s not not a reflection of who we are and and definitely not a reflection who we want to be. So, I take responsibility for that. But, we’re all devastated inside, gutted, apologise to the fans that traveled, that’s not the team they want to watch, that’s not the team that we are. So it’s got to hurt us, the fans that are at home watching, we apologise and we learned our lessons the hard way on this one. We’ll take our medicine. We know what we um let ourselves down with. Credit to the opponent because they played their game against us, which didn’t allow us to get our rhythm in our game, and you know there’s some simple lessons within that that will hurt with and and make sure we focus on the next week ahead and not let that happen again.
Interviewer: It was a very good press that they were adopting especially in that first half but in the second half we started to take the game to them more I felt
Peter: Yeah listen first half we missed some opportunities to really hurt them, I felt like we had some moments where we could have gone forward and and tested their back line out unfortunately just didn’t sort of capitalise on those moments at the same time the simple part of the game where you got to fight roll your sleeves up and win that second ball and handle the direct game. We failed today and that hurts us and that that gives them momentum and that helps their game um get kickstarted and and and we had to climb a mountain today that we uh we fell short on.
Interviewer: Were you were you pleased is the right word, but that second half performance is there things that we can look at in a positive way there?
Peter: Well, for sure. But I mean, in a sense, you know, you can’t you can’t leave yourself with a mountain to climb in that first 45, and that’s football. Wherever you are, whatever part of the world you’re on, you just can’t let that happen. So, it’s going to hurt us, and it and it and it is, we’re disappointed, we’re frustrated, embarrassed even, you know, that we put on a performance like that. It’s heartbreaking in a sense because it’s not who we are, but what we’ll do is um use it as motivation absorb it as men and bounce back.
Interviewer: just a mention for the the substitutes who came on because we’ve mentioned this about how strong the squad is. I felt the substitutes did help and did alter things.
Peter: No, without a doubt and that’s responsibility of whoever comes on to impact the game. We always talk about as you know we’re not going to rely on one player or any player. But we rely on the team doing it and that’s a credit to them and you know there was never a doubt of effort by the players or intent to do our club proud, it was just in moments of that game we we didn’t handle well. We learned from that from a football perspective, the heart, the character, the desire, it’s in the change room and we’ve got enough of that. No problem at all. We just got to play a better game of football that um will show our qualities.”
Barnet’s Dean Brennan spoke after the game: “I thought our performance, our level of performance, our physicality, how the lads stuck to the game plan, making contacts in their back line, not letting them get rhythm in the game, not letting them get the phases, they followed it to perfection.
“If I told you on Tuesday, I was fuming after training. So, there was a different team. There was a different system. And Connor and myself, we just weren’t happy. We went home. We watched our game against Grimsby cuz they played a similar system last season. We beat Grimsby here 3-0 then we adapted a diamond today with two up front, so we don’t just stick to one system, and then in game to be fair to Pete he’s made a substitution and he’s gone to a box of midfield play three at the back and they got some phases within that where they started to hold us, then we changed, then the most frustrating thing is the goal we conceded at the end.
“Last year we dropped something 26 points on leading positions in the second half, we can’t have that, players come off the bench, can’t be sitting on the edge of the box marking someone with a wide free kick he’s 6’4 five, he should be in the box marketing.
“So, if we’re going to drive forward and be better, the lads have to be at it cuz really the data from today’s game and the stats we should win by four or five goals and we’ve won by two in the end in a game where we shouldn’t we should have won by much more.
“So, decision making as well for us needs to be better.
“But the most pleasing thing for me is our fitness levels, how fit we are, how dynamic we are, and ideally today, if I want to tell you the truth, I would have made would have liked to have made attacking subs today. There was a lot of space when when they opened up and we no real attacking subs on the bench. So, it’s something we have to address.”
See more of what he said below…
