Game 5: Salisbury City 0.1 Burton Albion (Blue Square Premier) 09.08.08

Normally the opening game of the season is a day for tshirts and sun tan lotion but today's weather saw raincoats the order of the day. Pete and I wandered over from the industrial estate in pouring rain and strong winds to join the queue to get into the ground. The weather seemed to match the mood of the supporters during the game - no real buzz of excitement about the start of the second season in the Blue Square Premier.

Before kickoff there was a one minute silence in the memory of Ernie Cooksey, a Grays Athletic player who passed away from cancer during the summer.

Burton started well and scored after 2 minutes. The Salisbury defence conceded a sloppy corner and failed to defend it - the ball came in from the left side to the far corner where it was headed back to Greg Pearson to hit the ball home unchallenged from 3 yards.

After 12 minutes it was almost 2.0, Matt Robinson putting the ball just past his own post when clearing a ball - heart in the mouth stuff! Burton's veteran keeper Kevin Poole had a couple of saves to make but nothing too testing. Most of the time the ball was being crossed into the area with the hope that the wind might take it into the net. Salisbury had a shout for a penalty turned down - from the distance we were at it was hard to tell whether it had hit a hand or not but the referee waved play on.

Jody Banim then missed a glorious chance to make the game 2.0 to Burton. Cook messed up a back header towards Bittner and the ball didn't have enough pace on it to make it back to the keeper. Banim tried to chip Bittner but the keeper was able to push the ball back out - Banim then tried a low shot which Bittner was able to save. Burton continued to put the pressure on Salisbury - from a corner Bittner spilt the ball but was able to shepherd Banim to the side of the box, allowing the defence to cover behind him. Salisbury's best chance came on 40 minutes from a Feeney cross to Clarke, whose header Poole saved with ease.

Salisbury were attacking towards the In-Excess Stand in the second half and almost equalised within the first minute. Feeney put a shot wide and a minute later crept onto a cross at close range - the shot was heading towards the goal until Poole pushed it over the bar. The game seemed to drag after that - Salisbury weren't producing a killer touch and Tubbs was very quiet - apart from a late penalty shout for a barge on the edge of the box he didn't really trouble the Burton defence. The weather conditions didn't help either team as passes and crosses zipped off the wet surface or got carried wide by the wind. Burton were able to waste a lot of time by the strange decision not to use ballboys around the pitch to get the ball back into play sooner. The referee added on 5 minutes injury time but the majority of the 1,122 spectators were resigned to an opening day Salisbury defeat.