Salford boss Neil Wood knows his team “still have a job to do” after they beat Stockport 1-0 in the League Two play-off semi-final first leg at the Peninsula Stadium.
Experienced striker Matt Smith bagged the decisive goal in the first half to hand the Ammies a slender lead ahead of next Saturday’s second clash back at Edgeley Park.
Wood said: “I guess I’m pleased with a 1-0, although it probably could and should have been more than that.
“We had two or three other good chances which we should have stuck away, so it’s possibly a bit frustrating we didn’t capitalise a bit more.
“I’m pleased with the way we played tonight, but it certainly won’t be an easy task for us next weekend.
“We’re looking forward to it and the lads definitely won’t be phased by playing in front of a big crowd over there.
“We’ve still got a job to do, but this team is learning all the time and we’ll go to Stockport with no fear.”
Wood went on to salute former Leeds, Fulham and Millwall hit-man Smith, whose predatory goal was his 12th of the season.
“He’s got that big-match experience,” added Wood.
“You certainly see the best of him in those kind of situations.
“It was a quality assist, a really good delivery from the cross and once it feel to Smudge I felt confident he’d stick his chance away.”
Salford dominated the opening 45 minutes at the Peninsula Stadium, but Stockport restricted them to just the one-goal advantage by the interval.
Smith struck the decisive effort after 16 minutes as he headed home Elliot Watt’s out-swinging cross.
Although the visitors rallied somewhat after the restart, they struggled to create anything clear-cut and Salford hung on to their slender advantage without too much difficulty.
This was a first loss since February for Stockport and their boss Dave Challinor remains confident ahead of the second leg.
He said: “We’ll take on the second leg in the same attacking way we have done throughout the season.
“We’ve been very consistent all the way through and we’ve ground out some big results when we’ve needed to.
“I think it’s 10 times we’ve won by two goals or more this season so far, so we’ve got to go and do that again now.
“This just goes to show how close this league is, though.
“I think all the four teams in the play-offs are so evenly matched, so that means whoever wins the big prize, it’s going to be fine margins.
“It was a close game tonight, a really edgy game at times, but it was important for us that we leave here tonight still very much in the tie.
“We now know exactly what we need to do next Saturday, and the lads have got the belief that we can get through to Wembley.
“It’s going to be a brilliant atmosphere at Edgeley Park, so it’s up to us now to get the job done.”
Tottenham's Odobert undergoes hamstring surgery
Tottenham have confirmed that Wilson Odobert has undergone surgery for a hamstring injury.
The 19-year-old joined Spurs from Burnley in August and made five appearances in all competitions for the north London side.
He managed just 162 minutes in his three Premier League matches, creating three chances in that time, but has not featured in the competition since their 1-0 loss to Arsenal in mid-September.
His last appearance was a two-minute cameo in the Europa League group stage amid ongoing hamstring problems.
"We can confirm that Wilson Odobert underwent surgery to his right hamstring yesterday (Saturday 16th November)," Spurs said on social media.
"The 19-year-old will continue to be closely monitored by our medical team to determine when he can return to training."
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
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