By Pete Martin
The final regular season away game of Salisbury FC’s season saw them return from West London with all 3 points courtesy of a 2-nil win at Hayes and Yeading United. Manager Brian Dutton made 3 changes to his side from last week’s disappointing loss to Harrow Borough; Josh Sommerton, Aaron McCreadie and Charlie Gunson coming in for Jack Ball, Richard McIntyre and Ryan Penny.
Salisbury made a bright start to the game and could have taken the lead after 9 minutes but Charlie Gunson was desperately unlucky to see his free kick crash back off the underside of the crossbar. The Whites had a couple of further half chances inside the opening 20 minutes; Owen Dore and Gunson with weak shots at home keeper Dillon Addai, before on 25 minutes Hayes had their first sight of goal; Cole Brown shooting straight at Ryan Gosney with a low effort. 4 minutes later though Salisbury took the lead when, after a spell of possession on the left hand side, Josh Sommerton played a low ball across which saw Noah Coppin nip in front of the defence and flick the ball home at the near post.
There was no immediate bounce back from Hayes; the Whites able to control the ball for large spells albeit without threatening a second goal. 5 minutes before half time though the home side had their best chance of the half, Luke Gambin striking the post with his first time shot from 10 yards out before Amos Nasha fired the follow up well over the top of the goal to ensure Salisbury went in at half time a goal to the good.
The Whites started the second half well, controlling the possession and playing predominantly in Hayes’s half. After Dore, Gunson and Aaron Simpson had all seen shots go wide, Salisbury doubled their lead on 66 minutes. A through ball was touched inside to Coppin and the young attacker showed great composure to calmly finish beyond Addai and into the bottom corner. Following the second goal there was a welcome substitution for the Whites; defender Tom Bragg returning from a number of months out with a serious knee injury and taking to the pitch.
The rest of the game saw Salisbury comfortably in control and able to see out the game with relative ease. They managed to create a number of chances late on, whilst restricting Hayes to very little in the final third. Coppin could have bagged himself a hat trick with 5 minutes of normal time left but dragged a shot wide, before on 90 minutes the Whites were denied a stonewall penalty when Josh Hedges was blatantly tripped in the box. In the dying seconds of time added on Hedges found himself through on goal but Addai got down well and, with substitute Wayne Robinson’s follow up blocked behind, it remained just a 2 goal win for the Whites to send them back to 2nd place in the league.
The final league game of the season sees Salisbury welcome Hanwell Town to the Ray Mac next Saturday 27th April for a 3pm kick off.
Team: Gosney, Simpson(Bragg), Sommerton, Jomabti, Leggett, Dore, McCreadie, Gunson(Robinson), Hedges, Coppin, Fitchett(Perez) Unused Subs: Rutter, McIntyre
