Salford v Oldham was halted as fans invade the pitch in protest over Gary Neville’s admission of taking a Union Jack flag down.
A number of fans waved St George flags, with one attempting to plant a flag in the middle of the pitch with stewards removing at least two pitch invaders who briefly disrupted play, accompanied by chants targeting Gary Neville and supporting England.
Neville recently criticised the display of Union Jack and St George flags, arguing they’re being used divisively by “angry, middle-aged white men.”
Speaking on his LinkedIn page, Neville said: “Funnily enough on one of my development sites last week there was a union jack flag put up and I took it down instantly.
“Some people might be watching this and thinking, ‘Gary you’re not really patriotic.’ I’ve played for my country 85 times, I love my country, I love Manchester and I love England.
“I’ve been building in this city for 15-20 years, and there’s no one put a union jack flag up in 15-20 years, so why do you need to put one up now?
“The Union Jack flag used in a negative fashion is not right and I’m a proud supporter of England, of Great Britain, of our country and will champion it anywhere in the world as one of the greatest places to live,
“But I think we need to check ourselves, check ourselves and start to think about bringing ourselves back to a neutral point because we’re being pulled right and left and we don’t need to be pulled right and left at all.”
Fans invaded the pitch in the 1st half wearing white hoodies which read ‘Gary Neville is a traitor’.
Britain First tweeted: “⚽️ ‘GARY NEVILLE IS A TRAITOR!’ BRITAIN FIRST AND SALFORD PATRIOTS INVADE PITCH AT SALFORD FC TO PROTEST GARY NEVILLE
“This afternoon, Britain First teamed up with local Salford patriots to protest the treachery of Gary Neville at a football match between Salford and Oldham.”
⚽️ ‘GARY NEVILLE IS A TRAITOR!’ BRITAIN FIRST AND SALFORD PATRIOTS INVADE PITCH AT SALFORD FC TO PROTEST GARY NEVILLE
This afternoon, Britain First teamed up with local Salford patriots to protest the treachery of Gary Neville at a football match between Salford and Oldham. pic.twitter.com/OtjiGcoDiD
— Britain First (@BFirstParty) October 18, 2025
“Gary Neville is a traitor” pitch invasion at Salford FC.
Crowds cheer on, too 🇬🇧 🏴
pic.twitter.com/U7Zy5Rba4G
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) October 18, 2025
Ashlea Simon, Co-Leader of Britain First, said in a video tweet: “So I’ve just got home after an absolutely brilliant morning with the Salford lads.
“As you’ve probably all seen now, we completed a very successful pitch invasion of the Salford FC ground whilst I was playing in Oldham FC this morning. It was absolutely brilliant.
“We was all squirted off very quickly after three of our lads ran on the pitch with England flags, ‘Gary Neville’s a traitor’ hoodies and 5,000 Gary Neville’s a traitor business cards that they also threw on the pitch.
“All of the fans, all of the Old MFC fans were chanting Gary Neville’s Trader, Gary Neville’s a wanker. It was absolutely brilliant. So if you want to see more of this, you want to see more of what we’ve got planned, then keep on watching because we’ve got lots more fun stuff planned.”
#Oldham Fans at Salford today ✊🏻👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/LSVvNO0cGm
— Captain Cooper @ The Orphans Scooter Club (@FirstKicksSC) October 18, 2025
Flag protests against Salford City owner Gary Neville #oafc pic.twitter.com/kO0Ikai5da
— Suzanne Geldard (@SuzanneNQNW) October 18, 2025
Ashlea Simon added: “What a day 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻 Successful pitch invasion, what do you think we’ll do next? 😏😂Neville you traitor 🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼
“⚠️⚠️⚠️ They arrested Walter White the pitch invader 😂
“What a guy, don’t worry about Walter though he’s a top lad he’ll be out in a few hours 💪🏻🇬🇧🇬🇧
“Salford FC had a right shock.”
⚠️⚠️⚠️
They arrested Walter White the pitch invader 😂
What a guy, don’t worry about Walter though he’s a top lad he’ll be out in a few hours 💪🏻🇬🇧🇬🇧
Salford FC had a right shock. pic.twitter.com/nijTF3L40o
— Ashlea Simon (@AshleaSimonBF) October 18, 2025
What a day 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Successful pitch invasion, what do you think we’ll do next? 😏😂
Neville you traitor 🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼 pic.twitter.com/0Fiau1rpvp
— Ashlea Simon (@AshleaSimonBF) October 18, 2025
The game itself saw Salford go ahead on 14 minutes, Manny Monthe brought down Kelly N’Mai in the area and the referee pointed to the spot, Kadeem Harris hitting the post with his kick but Daniel Udoh was there on the rebound to head in his third goal for Salford.
Oldham went down to 10 men in the second half, with defender Will Sutton shown a straight red for a foul on Kelly N’Mai as he was through on goal.
The result brings an end to the Ammies’ three-match losing streak and sees them move up to 4th in League Two for now while it’s now four games without a win for the Latics who lose their second on the road this season.
Micky Mellon said, per Oldham Times: “As a team I think that’s the sixth time we’ve given away a goal in the first 15 minutes.
“It’s going to make it very difficult for yourself; it’s poor defending. It’s a straight ball, we need to do better. And then when it hits the post we need to do better again. Then we kind of huffed and puffed, but didn’t give the supporters enough to get excited about probably until about the last 15-20 minutes when Joe (Quigley) and Michael (Mellon) kind of competed a bit more maybe up there and you get little half chances.
“We showed a lot of effort, and we worked hard but we have to play better.
“I didn’t think we particularly played very well with the ball. It’s always made very difficult when you’re down to 10 men.
“I think maybe in the first half we go a goal down against the run of play. I think we were probably the better team in the first 15-20 minutes but again we gave away that first goal, which makes it very difficult for yourself, and we didn’t do enough until the last 15 minutes when we were down to 10 men to give anything for anybody to get excited about.”
Luke Hannant went off with a cut to his knee after colliding with an advertising hoarding in a challenge.
“How does that not get officiated there? How does that moment not get refereed? It’s dangerous, and he didn’t do anything about it.
“He (Hannant) has got a gash on his knee, so we’ll see how he goes next week, whether or not he can bend it because sometimes that gets sore later on.
“He’s got a really bad gash.”
On refereeing decisions – the penalty and Sutton’s red card – Mellon added: “I haven’t seen the penalty, I’m too far away. I think from our point of view of the defending is poor. To be able to roll the ball between two centre halves like that and for him to get in is poor.
“I think Manny (Monthe) makes an honest challenge for the ball, I always look where the ball goes and it went across the box.
“But I can’t say that I would know because I’m so far away.
“The sending off… I think I’m as surprised as anybody to see the red card, I think that would be fair to say.
“I don’t think Will even made an attempt for the ball, I think the guy’s hit his heel or something, I don’t know.
“Did he make an obvious challenge for the ball and foul the guy? No.
“We find ourselves down to 10 men and we rally, we try to keep two up front and we go a bit bold and it turned into a bit of a scrap. We get our opportunity but we aren’t able to take it.
“But over the course of the game we weren’t able to make them defend enough.”
