League Two's Salford City will put their promotion ambitions to one side this weekend when they travel across Greater Manchester to take on Manchester City
Erling Haaland removes his shirt during Manchester City's victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers
Erling Haaland removes his shirt during Manchester City's victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers(Image: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
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Salford City manager Karl Robinson says he'll be angry with his players if he sees any of them looking to secure shirts from Manchester City stars at half time of their FA Cup fourth round clash this weekend. The Ammies have reached this stage of the competition for the first time after beating fellow League Two side Swindon Town in the last round.
The club previously owned by the Class of '92 but now in the hands of a consortium which includes Manchester United legends Gary Neville and David Beckham, played City for the first time last season when they reached the third round for the first time. However, an 8-0 drubbing at the Etihad Stadium was a sobering scoreline for Robinson's men.
They will return to the home of Pep Guardiola's team on Saturday and while it is undoubtedly a great experience for the Salford players, Robinson has warned his team not to fall into a modern football pitfall.
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When asked what he would do if one of his players was trying to secure the shirt of an Erling Haaland at half time, Robinson told talkSPORT: "They best not, mate. They better not try to get a shirt at half time - I'll go mental if they do.
"We've trained all week and we've extended our pitch, so it is bigger than what we normally play on. We had an 11 versus 11 yesterday, and we actually made it a 14 vs 11 just to make them realise how difficult it is going to be.
"We know we are probably going to have to give up the ball for most of the game, and when you play at our level, we have a lot of the ball, so it's going to be a game of football where we don't touch it very often. It is difficult to swallow your ego and accept that, but you are going to have to because the quality of opposition is so good."
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Robinson admitted he watched City's 3-0 midweek win over Fulham but felt he could take little from it. "I turned it off at half time - I thought it was actually pointless," he admitted. "When you see the quality of Fulham getting run around for 45 minutes. I was thinking: 'I can't wait to see my lads do that on Saturday.'"
Haaland was replaced at half time for City on Wednesday night with Guardiola admitting the Norwegian told him he 'did not feel comfortable', so the striker could be a doubt. However, the likes of James Trafford, John Stones, Phil Foden and Omar Marmoush could all be given minutes this weekend.