By Pete Martin – Cover image by Michael Berkeley.
A frustrating afternoon at the Ray Mac stadium saw Salisbury play out a goalless draw with league strugglers Yate Town. There were 3 changes made to the starting lineup; Sam Ashton and Devon Arnold replacing Dan Fitchett and Seokjae Lee, as well as a debut for new signing Nassim Kherbouche at the heart of the defence; Dinesh Gillela the player to drop to the bench.
Images by Michael Berkeley
It’s fair to say it was a cagey start, with chances at either end hard to come by. A couple of dangerous balls in from Lucas Tomlinson were well dealt with by the Yate defence before, on 14 minutes, his corner was met by Kherbouche with the resulting header going well over the bar. Neither keeper was unduly troubled in the 1st 30 mins, both sides unable to fashion a shot on target with the defences standing strong. The best chance of the half arrived after 32 minutes with Ashton firing the ball just over the bar following Calvin Brooks’ whipped cross. 2 minutes later Yate had their 1st sight of goal, but Kyle Tooze fired wide from distance following an errant pass in the Salisbury defence and the sides went into the break level pegging in what was far from a vintage 1st half.
The 2nd half carried on the pattern of play from the 1st; neither side able to create much with both defences looking solid. It took until 68 minutes for there to be anything resembling a shot at goal but Tomlinson’s weak effort from distance dribbled well wide. The last 10 minutes of the game saw the most excitement, firstly Brooks and Arnold linked up well down the right to create a shooting chance for Josh Carmichael, with his shot blocked in the box by a Yate defender. Yate then had their best effort of the game with 5 minutes left, a cross from the right was punched clear by Gerard Benfield and the return shot from Dennis Digie was straight at the Salisbury keeper and easy to collect. The Whites immediately went down the other end and clever play from substitute Fitchett saw Arnold in behind the defence but his shot from inside the area crashed against the crossbar. That proved to be that for the game as it finished goalless with Yate surely the happier of the 2 sides with the point.
Images by Roger Elliott
Salisbury will look to improve on the result this Tuesday 22nd November when they travel to another struggling side in Hartley Wintney.
Team: Benfield, Brooks C, Sommerton, Roberts, Kherbouche, Carmichael, Lawrence, Yang(Lee), Arnold, Tomlinson, Ashton(Fitchett)
Unused Subs: Gunstone-Gray, Gillela.
