Game 3: Droylesden 0.0 Salisbury City (Blue Square Premier) 11.08.07

Alan got in touch during the week to see if I was going to a game and we decided to take a trip upto Manchester to see Salisbury's opening game against Droylesden. An eventful journey on the way up - a quick stop at the garden centre in Andover to use the loos, a motorcycle accident on the A34 that held us up, further delays on the M5 and M6 due to the volume of traffic and a wrong turn on the Manchester road that saw us drive clockwise rather than anticlockwise adding 30 mins to our journey meant we parket just off the main road by the ground 5 minutes before kick off and got into the ground just as the teams were coming out.

It was a lovely warm day and some of the locals decided to combine watching the game from the alleyway at the back of the nearby pub with a few cans from the local offlicence. The game wasn't segregated and we decided to watch from the shade of the main stand behind the goal where most of the Salisbury fans were congregated.

The opening few minutes were eventful - Matt Robinson brought down a Droylesden player in the first couple of minutes and it looked to me as if it should have been a penalty. To our relief it wasn't given and the freekick led to the next flashpoint of the game. The ball was blasted into the wall and in the melee, one of the Droylesden players was suddenly surrounded by some of the Salisbury team. After the predictable handbags, the referee sent of the Droylesden player and it was later reported that he had kicked Wayne Turk in the head when Turk was on the ground.

Salisbury failed to capitalise on the man advantage. Too many crosses were delivered from deep and with Paul Sales on the bench there was no guile in the play. Droylesden worked hard to cover the space and had a couple of chances when their strikers were played in but nothing that troubled Clarke.

It was a similar story in the second half. Droylesden had a good chance from a corner but the resulting header was tipped over the bar by Clarke. Sales and Brown replaced Tubbs and Matthews as the heat started to take it's toll. Sales had a good header when he found space in the box but it went straight to the keeper's arms.

A decent result to start the campaign and a decent bunch of supporters at Droylesden, several of whom wished us the best for the season and a good journey home as we left for the 4 hour journey home. A good northern awayday.