Bamber Bridge draw with Salford City in friendly clash

The visitors, whose senior team takes on Everton in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, were represented by academy prospects for what was an entertaining 90 minutes of football.

Brig opened the scoring in the first half through Callum King-Harmes, before Lewis McKinney equalised for Salford on the stroke of half-time.

Matt Dudley then put Brig back in front after the interval, before a late goal from Will Shepherd meant that the two teams ended on level pegging.

Brig started the brightest of the two sides, Danny Wisdom heading straight at Salford stopper Max Williams on nine minutes, before King-Harmes placed an effort narrowly wide.

Wisdom then had another opportunity on 17 minutes, but Williams was out quickly to get in the way of his shot.

King-Harmes then got into the action again – the two players seemingly trading chances at this stage – forcing Williams to get down and parry the ball away from danger.

The Bolton loanee was not to be denied again, however, in the 31st minute, this time making no mistake with a cool finish into the bottom corner following an excellent through ball from Scott Burton.

Brig were set to go into the break in front, before McKinney scored a good solo goal with a quick turn of pace to sprint through followed by the finish past Danny Roccia in the Brig net.

Boss Jamie Milligan made a total of five changes to his side at half-time, and one of the substitutes made an almost immediate impact.

In the 53rd minute, Wisdom worked the ball on to the right-hand side before squaring the ball to Dudley, who emphatically slammed the ball into the net to restore the hosts’ advantage.

Danny Forbes then had a couple of chances, but was well denied by sub goalkeeper Brad Rose on both occasions.

With just five minutes left, Salford equalised through Shepherd, the No. 10 firing into the bottom-left corner from the opposite side.

The hosts pushed late on to try and grab a winner, with Forbes and new signing Isaac Sinclair both coming close, but the spoils were shared by the sides.

Brig begin their Northern Premier League Premier Division campaign on Saturday, with Matlock Town the visitors to the Sir Tom Finney Stadium for a 3pm kick-off.