Port Vale took an early lead after just two minutes. Kyle Perry took the ball at the edge of the penalty area and hit a shot past Bond and Bittner, into the right hand side of the goal. Salisbury got an equaliser four minutes later, trialist Jamal Easter ran into the box and hit a similar shot across the keeper and in.
Salisbury won a couple of corners and hit the post before the game settled down for a while. In the 19th minute, Rob Sinclair gave away a free kick just outside the penalty area. From this central point, Marc Richards hit a Beckham-esque freekick into the top left side of Bittner's goad to give Port Vale a 2.1 lead.
On 32 minutes Port Vale broke out from their area following a Salisbury corner that took a while to clear. As they moved at pace down the pitch, the Salisbury team were slow to cover back and left some space in the middle of defence. A couple of quick passes and Richards had time to place a shot for his 2nd of the game. It was a well worked goal.
After 40 minutes Salisbury had a real let off. Bittner called for the ball when a cross came in but didn't collect it. The ball rolled across the area to a Port Vale player who hit a shot directly at Bittner. The ball bounced out to another Vale player who mishit the ball but it fell to a team mate who headed it back towards goal. The ball beat the defence but came down from the crossbar into Bittner's arms.
The second half was a little bit of an anti-climax with no further goals, although Port Vale did have one ruled out for offside. Salisbury brought on a number of subs at half time - Bass, Cook, Robinson, Herring, Feeney, Matthews, Tubbs - so it was a full strength side who took to the field. The game got a bit niggly and a few late tackles came in from both sides. Rob Sinclair had to come off after an hour or so after stretching a bit too far for a tackle and was replaced by Jon Davies.
Davies, one of the leading lights in last year's reserves team, made the most of this opportunity. The 18 year old was a real handful for the Vale defence, using speed and trickery to get past his opponents on a number of occasions. The end product was not always as good but a couple of crosses made it to Tubbs, who put one shot past the post and had another blocked. When he didn't get past his man, Davies also won some free kicks for being brought down. Hopefully he won't find himself being kicked out of games this season as he looks a useful player.
Final attendance was given as 588, with around 50 Vale fans in the segregated away end.
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