James McAtee nets hat trick as Man City hammer Salford 8-0

Manchester City avoided a potential FA Cup banana skin with an 8-0 home thrashing of fourth-tier Salford City on Saturday -- a club with strong connections to local rivals Manchester United.

A much-changed City side were totally dominant with Divin Mubama marking his senior debut with a goal, Jack Grealish ending a year-long goal drought with a penalty and James McAtee bagging a second-half hat-trick.

Mubama doubled City's lead with a tap-in after Jérémy Doku had given the hosts the lead in the eighth minute and City were out of sight when Nico O'Reilly scored before halftime.

Grealish got in on the act when he earned and then converted a penalty in the 49th minute before McAtee scored three times inside 20 minutes and Doku slotted home a penalty.

Salford are co-owned by Manchester United teammates Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and David Beckham, but while they have made great strides and are pushing for promotion from League Two, they were given a 90-minute schooling by a slick City.

"Man City and Pep have never disrespected anybody and tonight they showed us why they are what they are and why he is who he is," Salford boss Karl Robinson said.

His side had conceded no goals in their last six games but City proved a much tougher hurdle as Butt and Scholes watched on from the director's box and Giggs from the technical area in his role as the club's football director.

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"I have told the players if someone had told me we would concede eight goals in seven games I would have taken it," Robinson joked. "I just didn't expect it to be all in one match."

City manager Pep Guardiola made nine changes to the line-up that beat West Ham United last weekend but his big guns were all stacked on the bench in case of an emergency.

That never looked like materialising once a counter-attack in the eighth minute saw Matheus Nunes drive forward and pass to Grealish who in turn played in the over-lapping Doku to send a left-foot shot in off the post.

Mubama made it 2-0 with a tap-in from a Nunes pass and it was game up for Salford just before the interval when O'Reilly controlled a Doku pass to steer home a shot for his first goal for the club.

Grealish scored his first goal since Dec. 16, 2023 when he was hacked down in the area just after half-time and got up to convert the penalty.

The excellent Doku set up McAtee for his first goal just past the hour and the Belgian converted a spot kick before being substituted. McAtee then put the icing on the cake with two more well-taken goals.