Rotherham United start the 2020/1 season in the Carabao Cup with a trip to Greater Manchester when they travel to the Peninsula Stadium to take on Salford City which is the first time either team have met in any competition.
The Ammies started life in 1940 as Salford Central and were promoted to the Manchester League twenty-three years later when they changed their name to Salford Amateurs. At the end of the 1968/9 season they were promoted to the Manchester League Premier Division after finishing as Champions of Division One. In the 1970’s they won many local cups and dropped the ‘Amateur’ part of their name when they moved to Moor Lane in 1978. Two years later they were accepted into the semi-professional Cheshire League and at the same time merged with Anson Villa. 1982 saw them become founder members of the North West Counties Football League and were in Division One and stayed there for ten years before being relegated. A year later they were back in Division One due to re-construction of the league. 1990 saw they become Salford City. City were promoted to the Unibond Northern Premier League Division One North at the end of the 2007/8 season. In 2014 the now famous Class of ’92 took over the ownership of the club and the end of the 2014/15 season saw them promoted to the Northern Premier League Premier Division and the following season saw them promoted to the National League via the Play-Offs. The Ammies rose through the ranks and under the guidance of Manager Graham Alexander they reached the 2019 Football Conference Play-Off beating Fylde three-nil at Wembley to get their first ever place in the Football League finishing eleventh in their first season in League Two.
This will be Salford’s second time in the Carabao Cup the first time being last season when Leeds United were the visitors to Moor Lane and although they held on until just before half-time the game was a three-nil win for the visitors.
In the meantime the Millers were away at Shrewsbury in this competition last season which saw two early goals from Matt Crooks and Kyle Vassell plus others from Freddie Ladapo and Richard Wood give Rotherham a four-nil win and a home tie in round two with neighbours Sheffield Wednesday.
The furthest that Rotherham have gone in this competition was in the very first one when they got to the final against Aston Villa. It was a two-legged affair with the Millers winning two-nil at Milloor (goals from Webster and Kirkman) but Villa came back at home with a three-nil win after extra time to take the cup.
Round two is scheduled to be played on – or around – the 15th and 16th September.
