Kelly N’Mai was a doubt for Salford’s win at Barrow – Karl Robinson

Karl Robinson revealed Salford matchwinner Kelly N’Mai had been doubtful for the trip to Barrow.

N’Mai scored an 83rd-minute winner to ensure Robinson marked his second anniversary as Ammies boss with a 2-1 victory.

“I actually made him a honey and lemon on Friday night because I will do whatever it takes to keep him on the pitch,” smiled the Salford chief.

“He has not been well for the last three games but he keeps doing the right thing.

“I can’t thank them all enough for what they keep doing. My options are incredibly limited but every week they churn out results.”

Salford sat 21st in League Two when Robinson took over. Two years on they are fourth and only being kept out of an automatic promotion spot on goal difference.

“It’s not for me to assess (the two years),” said Robinson. “But I have sold the most amount of players in the club’s history, we are the highest the club has ever been.

“We’ve got to the third round of the FA Cup twice, which they haven’t done before.

“So we are ticking off an awful lot of firsts. That’s not me; it’s the board, the owners, the players, the staff, everybody.

“I’m just a very small cog in the football club because there are some very talented people behind me.

“I’m always at the mercy of them. It’s for others to judge how well we’ve done, but I get a lot of phone calls from other clubs saying how well we are doing.

“It’s nice that this club is competing at the top end of the table.”

Barrow’s 12th defeat of the season leaves them seven points above the drop zone and they entertain fellow strugglers Bristol Rovers on Sunday searching for a first home league win since September 20.

After taking interim charge for a fifth time, Neil McDonald said of the loss: “It’s not for the lack of trying and our goal was excellent and well deserved.

“We hit the crossbar and had a couple of penalty shouts which were close.

“But we gave the ball away in the wrong areas and they punished us and scored the goal to kill us off.

“I’m gutted we didn’t come out with something. We’re trying to get over the line and thought we had broken the sequence with the win at Tranmere.

“Hopefully the fans will stay with us and keep behind the players. They appreciate the support and hopefully we can get over the line.”

On his own position, McDonald added: “I’m just trying to stabilise the club and I think I have slightly done that.”