Salisbury 4’s 2:1 Basingstoke Vikings
On a dank, miserable and foggy evening Salisbury made hard work of this win against 10 man Basingstoke. However after the last two disappointing losses a win is a win and takes them above todays opponents into 4th place just behind Bournemouth on goal difference.
Despite positional and personnel changes Salisbury started the brighter of the two sides and they achieved a number of insertions into the away sides “D”. Basingstoke however were set up to defend and it was close to the 20 minute mark before James Palmer forced a goal from a fairly narrow angle on the left. Salisbury also gained a small number of short corners but the procedure was not firing correctly.
The second half saw the mist cover parts of the pitch reducing visibility to less than the length of the playing area. Salisbury picked up somewhat and their youngsters performed much better in mid-field than in previous weeks. Henry Smith, Phil Alison, Akram Ghauri and James Wade used their youthful speed and endurance much better but the home side failed to penetrate their opponents “D” as they should have with the man advantage. Eventually the second goal came from a short corner: two shots were saved by the Basingstoke keeper before David Hillier stuck a hard shot that left him no chance of a third.
The away team continued their pressing and in spite of the inspired defensive work of Paul Cude and others and with Salisbury continuing to give the ball away needlessly they managed to score in the last 10 minutes. This lead to a nerve tingling finale which Salisbury managed to survive.
MoM: Paul Cude
DoD: Phil Alison
Umpire: Tim Orchard & Alastair Barrett
Team: Matt Salmon, Andy Manders, Paul Cude, Mark Briggs, James Palmer, Howard Smith, Henry Smith, David Hillier, Jim Nicholson, Alan Garrett, Phil Alison, James Wade, Akram Ghauri, Andy Scrase.