An evening kick off saw Salisbury maintain their unbeaten start to 2007. Went to the game with Andy but decided to brave the cold and head to the sidelines rather than the warmth of the main stand to get a better view of the Salisbury attack and to attempt some night time photography.
Wayne Turk put Salisbury ahead on 35 minutes with a shot from the outside the box that took a slight deflection which was just enough to beat the keeper. By this point my hands were freezing so it was good to warm them up with applause. Cambridge were playing well and created a few chances before the Salisbury goal but lacked the final touch.
As half time approached I wandered round to the far side and got a cup of warm tomato soup to try and thaw out my hands and my insides.
For the second half, I moved back to the main stand but the promise of some soup wasn't enough to lure Andy from the right side to the left side where I was standing in plenty of space.
The main talking point of the game was the sending off of the Cambridge keeper midway through the second half for felling Tubbs in the box as Tubbs went round him on the left hand edge. From my viewpoint it looked as if Tubbs played for the penalty by pushing the ball past the keeper and waiting to be knocked rather than try and stay on his feet and score - any touch was marginal but the referee decided it was stopping a goal scoring opportunity.
Tubbs stepped up to take the penalty but the mind tricks he tried to use on the substitute keeper backfired as he hit it the wrong side of the left hand post. Indeed it appeared as if the new keeper was much better than the original keeper as he made 2-3 tremendous stretching saves.
Alas the good work was undone in the final minute. Deciding to risk it and gamble on getting a draw, the keeper went up for a late corner but was caught out of position when the ball was intercepted by Robbie Matthews. Then followed one of the best goals of the season. Matthews, urged on by the crowd, started to run towards the goal but decided to ignore the crowd and keep on running rather than shoot from distance. As the keeper and numerous defenders tried to catch him, he managed to outpace all of them and brought the ball into the penalty area before blasting it into the empty net. It looked like a scene from a Benny Hill show as one defender collapsed with a muscle problem and the keeper tried to stretch out in the penalty area to grab the ball.
A goal that will live in the memory banks for years!
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