Marcus Dackers scored his first senior goal for Salford City, but a Paddy Madden hat-trick saw Stockport County come from behind to win 3-1 in the EFL Trophy. The 20-year-old opened the scoring after just three minutes at The Peninsula Stadium, converting Junior Luamba’s cross from the right-hand side, and Salford went close to extending that lead during a fast start. However the visitors drew level after 20 minutes when Madden converted a penalty, after Tosin Olopade brought down Josh Popoola on the edge of the area. The Irishman was on the end of the best chances for Stockport, and after being kept out for the rest of the first half he got the better of Joe Wright again early in the second half. Stevie Mallan had a free-kick well saved at one end, and a couple of minutes later Madden was played through at the other end by Ashton Mee, rolling his shot underneath Wright as he came out to close him down. County achieved their seventh win in a row when Madden again breached Salford’s defence on the right-hand side, this time drilling a shot beyond Wright. The touch of one of League One and Two’s most prolific marksmen over the last decade was the difference in the scoreline, but in terms of performance there were good showings from Salford’s youngsters. Djavan Pedro on his first start for the club had a decent opening late in the first half after a neat turn to get clear from Akil Wright, and in the final five minutes substitute Alfie Henderson wrapped his foot around a shot on the end of Kyrell Malcolm’s pass. Mathematically the Ammies can’t qualify from the group now, ahead of the final group game against Manchester United Under-21s later in October, but Neil Wood was encouraged by the performance of the younger players, with four making their debuts. “We had a very young side but a very good experience for the guys that got to play. I thought the three or four older ones did it professionally, we’re on a fine line at the minute where we don’t want to lose anyone to injury so we changed the squad around a large amount. “We had moments in the game, we had spells in the game, but most of all it’s a really good experience for the lads to play in. “I thought Junior [Luamba] did really well, I thought Liam Humbles in the middle of midfield show bravery and wanted to get on the ball, a lot of energy in there. I thought Sandro [Da Costa] did really well when he came on, some lovely first time touches and playing it round the corner, so really good, really positive and something for them to build onto. “It was good to get Kyrell [Malcolm] on for his first game, his debut, for such a young lad, so we have to take the positives out of it. It was a game we probably could have done without at this stage of the season with the injuries that we’ve had so we had to make sure that we got through the evening with no injuries and we can set ourselves up for Saturday.”
