New boys Salford City and Leyton Orient played out an entertaining 1-1 draw in Saturday’s National League opener

Salford City co-owner Paul Scholes was impressed with the quality on show during their National League opener at home to Leyton Orient.

The 12.30pm kick-off was live on BT Sport and finished all square after some late drama at Moor Lane.

Rory Gaffney had given the Ammies the lead in the 47th minute after volleying home Danny Lloyd’s cross, but the O’s equalised with 86 minutes on the clock.

Craig Clay’s shot, following a corner, deflected off Salford captain Liam Hogan and into the net to give both sides a share of the spoils in front of 2,156 spectators at Moor Lane.

Manchester United legend Scholes told BT Sport: “I thought it was a really good game of football and the standard was really good.

“The standard has not been bad over the last couple of years, but you could see it was a physical step up and I think we will have that all season.

“I think Danny Lloyd going off was a little bit of a blow for us and we just needed that second goal. We didn’t quite manage to get it and we paid the price in the end.”

Orient almost took the lead in the 23rd minute when Alex Lawless fired a 20-yard effort against the post.

It remained goalless until the break, but the Ammies broke the deadlock in the 47th minute as Gaffney got away from his marker to fire past Dean Brill from close range.

After taking some time to regroup, O’s began to create opportunities and Macauley Bonne fired over following a cross by Jobi McAnuff.

Charlie Lee was next to go close when he deflected James Dayton’s centre onto the post, but couldn’t bundle the follow up loose ball over the line.

It seemed like Orient may go home empty-handed, but eventually they got their just rewards when a corner fell for Clay and his effort ended up in the back of the net.

The midfielder’s strike was going wide, but took a touch off Salford captain Hogan and beat home goalkeeper Chris Neal to give the visitors a 1-1 draw on the opening day.