MAN CITY 8, SALFORD CITY 0
James McAtee scored a 19-minute hat-trick as Manchester City walloped neighbours Salford City in the third round of the Emirates FA Cup.
The 22-year-old, who has played in the Premier League during two loan spells at Sheffield United, has struggled to make a breakthrough at the Etihad but will be hoping this treble kick starts his City career.
The gulf in class was palpable as City recorded their biggest win in the competition for 92 years – their previous best was 9-0 against Gateshead in 1933.
City, who have had little to cheer in the last couple of months, went goal crazy as their young guns took centre stage.
There were also first senior goals from Divin Mubama, on his debut, and Nico O’Reilly, two of the other starlets to sparkle.
Jeremy Doku also scored twice – one a penalty – and there was also a first goal in 38 games from Jack Grealish as his 13-month drought came to an end.
Guardiola praised the displays of his young players, especially McAtee who he described as an ‘exceptional talent’.
He said: “I’m so happy for him, he’s a special player. Scoring a hat-trick is not easy. He started a little bit flat but afterwards he has incredible sense in front of goal. He has the right tempo, he changed the rhythm to score.
“Of course, [McAtee] can play better. He scored three goals, but he can play better. First half was not his best but his work ethic, his composure and his rhythm… he’s a special player.
“He’s been at City for a long time, a City supporter and he was one of the biggest talents at the academy from the generation of Jadon Sancho, Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Liam Delap. He played with these guys and was the captain of them.
“I’m really, really pleased he’s here with us.
” I’m really happy for him and for Nico O’Reilly, who was playing a position he’d never played before at left-back. We have a lot of problems in that position. We could have played Josko [Gvardiol] or Rico [Lewis] but they need to rest with the amount of games that are coming and that they’ve played in the past.”
Embed from Getty ImagesOf the game, Guardiola added: “I cannot deny we need victories and now we have three in a row.
“We are far away from being top of the league and in this game everyone gave an incredible contribution.
“We scored a lot of goal, but it is just one game, but as for the mood we are happier.
“I’ve been manager here for more than 500 games and we’ve made an incredible 487 or 488 games. Then we had 11, 12 or 13 bad games.
“The problem that we’ve had is that we’ve had an incredible amount of injuries so we could not train and we could not compete. It’s so difficult but step by step, people are coming back.
“This season or maybe next season, new players come in and you have to fight for your position. When someone pushes you, you have competition and you give your best.”
Salford manager Karl Robinson refused to criticise his side which had won its previous six games without conceding a goal.
He managed a joke, saying: “I have told the players if someone had told me we would concede eight goals in seven games I would have taken it. I just didn’t expect it to be all in one match.
“It is going to be a long debrief, though you cannot use this match as a benchmark to criticise or hold grudges against our own players.
“My players give me everything week in, week out and we will be better from what happened today.
“We will go away and make sure we are better for it. We managed to bring in young Will [Wright, aged 16) who is a City fan and it made his way as well as ours.”
Robinson also viewed the bigger picture, adding: “It is 10 years since the owners took over [they were in the Northern Premier League] and we have not been at this level before.
“We had 5,500 fans and never played a Premier League team away and we ticked a number of boxes.”
Former West Ham FA Youth Cup winner Mubama, signed in the summer, was handed his senior City debut by Guardiola in one of nine changes to the side.
Nathan Ake and Savinho were the only players to keep their places from last week’s Premier League victory over the Hammers.
Guardiola named only two orthodox defenders, Ake and James Simpson-Pusey. McAtee and O’Reilly both make their first starts since October.
Robinson made two changes to his starting line-up with veteran midfielder Matty Lund and 21-year-old loan striker Kylian Kouassi both included for the League Two promotion hopefuls.
Stephan Negru has returned to his parent club Oxford.
Salford, who had not conceded a goal in their previous six league games, had their defence breached in the eighth minute.
The visitors gave the ball away as Matheus Nunes won the ball and fed Jack Grealish who, in turn, released Doku on the left of the box and he fired home a low shot in off the far upright.
Salford responded as a header from Lund landed on the roof of the net.
City had chances to double their lead as Savinho fired into the side netting and Ake’s header from a corner was cleared off the line by Kylia Kouassi.
The second goal arrived inside 20 minutes as Nunes and Savinho opened the visiting defence and the latter’s cross from the right found Mubama who had an easy tap-in from a couple of yards for a goal on what was a dream debut.
Salford had a couple of half chances as Kouassi failed to connect with a cross in front of goal while Kevin Berkoe snatched at a shot and fired well wide.
City added third goal in the 44th minute as O’Reilly also scored his first senior goal.
Doku provided the assist with a cut back from the left for O’Reilly to fire home an angled shot from six yards.
City made a change at the break as Ake made way for Manuel Akanji.
Salford conceded a fourth goal in the 49th minute after they conceded a penalty when Grealish was scythed down by Berkoe.
Grealish stepped forward to send keeper Matty Young the wrong way for his first goal of the season and first in 36 games since December 2023.
There was another City change within 10 minutes of the restart when Savinho was replaced by Phil Foden.
City netted a fifth goal not long after the hour when Doku’s right-wing cross was met by McAtee at the near post seven yards out and he glanced a shot into the far corner for only his second senior goal.
Five soon became six as Salford conceded a second spot kick, this time for Curtis Tilt handling a shot from Doku who sent Young the wrong way from 12 yards.
City made it seven almost immediately as Foden found McAtee who slotted home a low shot from seven yards.
Guardiola them made a second change as Mateo Kovacic replaced Doku.
Salford came close to a consolation when a 25-yard drive from substitute Cole Stockton flashed just wide.
McAtee completed his 19-minute hat-trick with nine minutes left as he slid in to convert a low Grealish cross from 10 yards.
Salford had two further chances to get onto the scoresheet as substitute Jon Taylor forced a fine block by Ederson while another sub Conor McAleny fired narrowly wide.
City almost made it nine in the last minute when Grealish set up Ilkay Gundogan whose effort was cleared off the line.
Referee Josh Smith blew the final whistle after exactly 90 minutes in what appeared an act of mercy to prevent Salford conceding even more goals.