By Pete Martin
Salisbury made it 3 wins in a row with a comeback victory away at Poole Town. There were 3 changes to the Whites lineup; Gerard Benfield replacing Albert White in goal, as well as Devon Arnold and Dinesh Gillela replacing Marvin Brooks and Ethan Sutcliffe.
It was the home team who got off to the brighter start and within the first 90 seconds, Luke Holmes put a shot from the edge of the area wide of the post. Salisbury’s first half chance of the game arrived after 6 minutes but Sam Roberts was unable to get proper contact on Charlie Davis’s free-kick, with the ball easily collected by Luke Cairney in the home goal. The home side saw most of the possession in the early stages but it took until 25 minutes for them to properly test Benfield who proved up to the task to deny Wes Fogden when he was well placed. There were very few other penalty box moments until in time added on former White’s striker, Toby Holmes had the ball in the net only to see the flag raised for offside, denying him the chance to open the scoring. The half time whistle soon went, with Poole nothing to show despite having dominated possession.
The second half saw Salisbury able to get more involved, although it was Poole who came closest to opening the scoring when on 50 minutes Benfield was again alert to deny Fogdon but there was nothing the keeper could do to prevent Poole from opening the scoring on the hour mark. Declan Rose was given time and space to cross the ball in from the right and Holmes was well placed just 6 yards out to bundle home. The Whites were galvanised by going behind and it took them just 5 minutes to equalise. A switched ball to the right saw Devon Arnold get the better of the defender and great persistence allowed him to cut inside and place a shot from 12 yards beyond Cairney and into the back of the net. From that point on Salisbury dominated the ball and were able to take the lead with about 10 mins to go through substitute Seokjae Lee. A slip from Cairney saw Josh Wakefield attempt to lob him from out wide and, despite mishitting it, the ball found its way back to him and he was able to send the ball deep to Lee who cut in from the left and buried it past Cairney for what proved to be the winner. Despite the best efforts of the Dolphins, they were unable to create anything to really test the White’s defence and Salisbury were able to hold on for the win.
Steve Claridge’s men will be back at The BlackGold stadium in just 5 days time as they look to get their FA Cup campaign off and running and end the hopes of Poole at the first possible opportunity.
Team: Benfield, Davis, Sommerton, Roberts, Gillela, Mullings, Wakefield, Arnold, Diaz, Goodship(Lee), Thomson(Ashton)
Unused Subs: White, Fitchett.
