By Pete Martin – Cover image by Roger Elliott
Salisbury backed up last week’s comfortable win at Yate with a hard-fought win at home to Wiltshire rivals Swindon Supermarine. Salisbury made one enforced change from last week, with goalkeeper Gerard Benfield out with a burst ear drum, new signing Albert White came in to make his debut between the posts.
The game got off to a quick start and both teams will feel they could have taken the lead inside the first 10 minutes. Firstly Supermarine’s Harry Williams found himself in space behind and drew a decent save from White before at the other end Brandon Goodship’s cute reverse ball saw Ben Thomson flash a shot just wide off his left foot.
On the quarter-hour mark, the match really sprung into life and Supermarine could have taken the lead but James Harding was unable to control the ball when in space 5 yards out and just 30 seconds later he was made to pay as Salisbury were awarded a penalty that Goodship despatched with ease into the back of the net. The ball came into the box where Thomson was bought down and, after consultation with his linesman, referee Adrian Harris pointed to the spot allowing Goodship to fire the home side into the lead. Despite both teams looking to play some good football, there was very little in the way of real goal chances throughout the first half with neither keeper having a proper save to make. Both teams looked to play positive football but were unable to break down the opposition and as a result, it was Salisbury who took a narrow lead into halftime.
The second half got off to an immediate fast start and after Supermarine striker Williams screwed a good chance wide, the White’s doubled their lead on 47 minutes. Marvin Brooks was able to feed the ball back to Antonio Diaz just inside the area and after a couple of neat touches, he fired home at the near post with his weaker right foot. Salisbury looked to push home their advantage and a long ball into the box saw Brooks head wide before on 63 minutes a third goal should have been added by Sutcliffe. Following a quick break forward the ball was bundled behind for a corner and when the ball was delivered into the 6-yard box the young centre-half will have been disappointed to plant his header wide from within the 6-yard box.
From that point on Supermarine were dominant on the ball and created 2 good chances but neither Sal Abubakar nor Henry Spalding could convert when presented with the ball just 3 yards out. That seemed to be that in terms of goal chances but with pretty much the last kick of the game the clean sheet for Salisbury was ruined as Williams lobbed a stranded White although with no time left to grab an equaliser the away side were sent home disappointed and empty-handed.
The Whites will look to keep the momentum going when they visit Poole Town on bank holiday Monday for a 3 pm kick-off.
Team: White, Davis, Sommerton, Roberts, Sutcliffe, Wakefield(Gillela), Mullings, Diaz, Goodship, Brooks M(Lee), Thomson(Fitchett)
Unused Subs: Arnold, Ashton.
It’s looking unlikely that we’ll have anyone to do match updates on Monday so we’d recommend trying the feed from Poole Town or using a goal alert app like FotMob to keep up to date.
