A cold afternoon up at the Ray Mac for the visit of Oxford United. I’d driven down from Reading and managed to arrive back in Salisbury at 2 so arranged to meet Andy at the ground. There was a big queue of traffic to get into the ground and it took about 10 minutes to get in as only one turnstile was open. While the Salisbury end wasn’t too full, the away end was packed and the game kicked off ten minutes late to allow everyone to get in. The away fans were certainly the loudest this season and with good reason – the attendance was 2,416 and over half (1,241) were from Oxford.
Salisbury attacked towards their supporters and took the lead in the third minute to silence the away end. Fowler leapt the highest at the near side of the penalty area and knocked a corner towards the back post. Griffin made up 6 yards in an instant and threw himself at the ball to head it past the stranded keeper.
Salisbury then doubled their lead in the seventeenth minute, Liam Feeney crossed the ball from the left side and found Ademeno lurking in the middle. He mishit his shot towards the near post while Billy Turley, anticipating a shot towards the far post, dived the wrong way. It seemed to take an age for the ball to bounce over the line but it finally trickled over the line.
Constable was looking dangerous for Oxford and managed to nick the ball past Bittner before collapsing in a heap. It was impossible to judge from the far end whether there had been contact made – luckily for Salisbury the referee judged that that it was outside the area and that no card was necessary. Salisbury defended deep and managed to clear a headed effort from a free kick over the crossbar. Constable had a couple of shots but didn’t get them on target to trouble Bittner.
Oxford made some changes at the start of the second half and after ten minutes of one way traffic managed to pull a goal back. Sam Deering was beating the Salisbury defence every time down the left side and after Constable’s shot was parried by Bittner, he chipped the ball into the open goal
That was the last contribution he made as moments later he went in for a tackle with Ruddick. At the time it looked like both players had gone for the ball, leading Deering to fall awkwardly. He had to be stretchered off but the referee didn’t see a late challenge and booked Oxford keeper Turley for running 40 yards to protest.
Yemi replaced him and almost found an equaliser with a strong cross shot from the edge of the penalty area that skimmed past the far post and went wide. Tim Bond also made a great goalmouth clearance with his head as Salisbury fought hard to keep the 3 points in Wiltshire. In the final minutes, Feeney should have scored when he went one on one with Turley but shot wide from distance when it might have been better to take the keeper on. By now the nerves were jangling but the Whites held on for a well deserved win.
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