York have had a run of 10 games unbeaten in the league before today's game but were missing recent signing Michael Gash up front through injury. Salisbury started brightly and in the second minute Matt Tubbs took the ball into the penalty area where he was brought down by ex Salisbury player Djoumin Sangare. The referee awarded a penalty and Tubbs stepped up to put the ball to the left while the keeper dived to the right.
After the early goal the game settled down. York were playing the ball high and long with their strong strikeforce of Rankine and Brodie tussling for the ball with the Salisbury defence. In the 22nd minute Brodie had a good chance to equalise, running onto a long ball and chipping just over the bar from the edge of the box as Bittner ran towards him.
York continued to put the pressure on and three minutes later Bittner was called into action with a spectacular save to push a shot over the bar. Five minutes later and Bittner made a superb double save to maintain Salisbury's lead before the Whites were saved by an offside flag as Meredith slid in and missed an open goal. In the last minute of the half Chris Flood found himself with an opportunity as he raced past the last York defender but he hesitated and took the ball too close to the York keeper who saved at his feet.
For the second half, Salisbury reverted to a 4-4-2 formation with Danny Webb replacing Darrell Clarke as they had not been able to keep possession upfield during the first half. Chris Flood had another good chance when through on goal in the 53rd minute but when he tried to place the ball it ended up going well wide of the post. York continued to press and Bittner had to use his feet as an emergency sweeper on a couple of occasions.
In the 65th minute Turley went off the pitch clutching his shoulder after challenging for the ball which left Salisbury down to 10 men. While Cox waited on the sideline to come on, Sinclair was brought down by a heavy tackle but the referee waved play on. York then crossed the ball deep to the far right but didn't make the most of the numerical advantage as the shot went wide. It seemed like only a matter of time before York would score as Rankin had a shot from the 6 yard line saved by Bittner followed by another breakaway attack where Brodie hit the crossbar after lifting the ball over Bittner from a tight angle.
The pressure from York was relentless and it looked like it had paid off in the 78th minute when a shot squirmed under Bittner's body and Brodie tapped the ball into the unguarded net from a yard out. The York fans started to celebrate as Brodie ran along the far touchline until they spotted that the assistant had his flag up for offside. Brodie was involved in a number of tussles with Salisbury's loan signing Ryan Tafazolli and in the 85th minute the two players both seemed to be tugging on each other's shirt as Brodie attempted to get onto a through ball. The referee didn't see it like that and produced a straight red card for Tafazolli.
Salisbury had to reshape the team and Matt Tubbs was sacrificed for Luke Ruddick to come on, Webb reverting to defence and Flood moving up to a lone front man role. As the board went up for 6 minutes of injury time, York missed a sitter. The ball was played out to the right of the penalty area to an unmarked player but he managed to drag his shot so far to the left that it missed the goal completely and went out for a goalkick. That was the last chance of the match and summed up the poor finishing from the visitors. At the final whistle it sounded as if Salisbury had won a playoff game as the cheers of relief filled the air.
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