By Pete Martin
Salisbury saw their recent run of good form come to a halt as defeat at home to Merthyr Town ended a run of 4 consecutive victories. With perhaps one eye on Saturday’s FA Cup tie and looking to manage player injuries, Steve Claridge made a number of changes to his starting lineup including a debut for new signing Josh Carmichael and a first start of the season for Sam Ashton.
Following an immaculately observed minutes silence in memory of Queen Elizabeth II, it was the visitors who started the liveliest and they could have taken the lead after just 2 minutes. A poor clearance from keeper Gerard Benfield went straight to the feet of Keiran Evans who took a couple of touches and then crashed a shot against the angle of the post and crossbar with the ball bouncing away to the relief of Benfield. Merthyr continued to pressure with both Evans and Thomas Handley shooting wide from distance before, on 13 minutes, the Whites were able to test Martyrs keeper William Fuller. Ashton was able to hold the ball up before feeding in Seokjae Lee whose left-footed shot was pushed around the post by Fuller.
Merthyr continued to look the most likely to threaten and they were finally able to open the scoring on 23 minutes through striker Lewis Powell. With the home defence slow to react the ball could only be cleared to Handley on the left side of the box and his driven ball across saw Powell just beat Benfield to the ball and apply the finishing touch. The last 10 minutes of the half saw the home side have their brightest spell and they created a couple of chances with first Ashton denied by Fuller before Lee could only shoot high and wide at the end of a good attacking move involving both Ashton and Devon Arnold. The half time whistle went soon after with the visitors much the happier of the 2 sides.
The Whites came out of the blocks fast in the second half and they saw plenty of the ball with Josh Wakefield flicking the ball wide from inside the area before, on 58 minutes, they created their best chance of the game so far. Marvin Brooks showed good feet to slip the ball through for Asthon and the striker struck a powerful effort which Fuller did well to beat away with the Merthyr defence clearing the ball away from any further danger. There was a couple of warning shots of what the away side could do on the break before, on 68 minutes, the Martyrs doubled their lead and it came from a Salisbury attack. Dinesh Gillela lost the ball on the left wing and within 10 seconds the ball was in the White’s net courtesy of a lightning-quick break with Ricardo Rees finishing it off with a clever finish beyond Benfield. Salisbury continued to push forward in an attempt to get back into the game and were able to fashion chances for Wakefield, Carmichael and Ethan Sutcliffe but none were of sufficient quality to worry Fuller.
With time running out the Whites did pull a goal back and it came via the penalty spot. Substitute Antonio Diaz swung a corner in and in the crowd around the goalkeeper, Ismail Yakubu was adjudged to have handled the ball. There were strong claims from Merthyr that it was a Salisbury hand but the referee brandished a red card and Brandon Goodship stepped up to smash home the penalty to set up a frantic finish as the game headed into time added on. Despite the best efforts of the home side, the best they could do was a half chance for Goodship and Merthyr hung on to record a fine victory and head back to Wales with all 3 points.
Salisbury will look to bounce back to winning ways when they entertain Oxford City of the National League South in the FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round this Saturday 17th September with a 3 pm kick-off.
Team: Benfield, Davis, Gillela(Fitchett), Roberts, Sutcliffe, Wakefield, Carmichael, Arnold(Diaz), Lee(Goodship), Brooks M, Ashton
Unused subs: Thomson, Fox.
