My original plan was to head to one of Hythe, US Portsmouth or Aldermaston in the Wessex league but after heavy overnight rain the latter two were cancelled and I wasn't confident about the first being on. With that in mind, I decided to stay local and decided to head up to the Ray Mac.
There wasn't much on display from either team in the first half an hour. Salisbury had a lot of the possession but didn't make the most of the corners and other half chances that they made. Perhaps this was due to them having to kick towards the Inexcess Stand rather than the away end in the first half but more likely due to the makeshift nature of the team - two of the starters had never played at the Ray Mac.Stevenage looked quite dangerous on the break but seemed to trouble the assistant referee's arm more than the Salisbury goal with a number of offsides given against them. It was hard to see where a goal might come from but in the 30th minute, new loan signing Dave Winfield played a suicidal backpass that was far too short for the keeper to reach. This allowed Mitchell Cole to nip in and place the ball past Bittner into the back of the net. Matt Tubbs had looked quiet and just after the goal he was replaced by Danny Webb. On the radio at halftime they said that there was a bug going around the club and he could be the latest victim.
The second half was more of the same - lots of hustle and bustle but few chances for either team to score. On 66 minutes one of the Stevenage midfielders picked up the ball, ran at the Salisbury defence and mesmerised them with his footwork long enough to run into the box and hit a superb shot past Bittner. A great goal but marred slightly by the rest of his teammates joining him and aiming their celebrations at the home fans, some of whom had been applauding the goal only moments before.
At this point I was taxting Alan and Andy to tell them that this was the worst Salisbury performance I'd seen for a long time. However this second goal seemed to focus the minds of some of the Salisbury players. All of a sudden passes were finding their man and players were moving forwards rather than sideways. 3 minutes later Liam Feeney hadn't looked his normal sharp self but suddenly he burst forward on the right side and hit a low cross into the box. Charlie Griffin was in the middle and managed to steer it past the keeper much to everyone's surprise.
Things got even better for the Whites 9 minutes from time. Feeney started a run from the halfway line and dribbled his way across the centre of the pitch before he was brought down just outside the area. When the freekick was taken, it was tapped to Charlie Griffin who hit a low shot that managed to squeeze past the keeper and into the bottom right hand corner. The 900 or so Salisbury fans in a crowd of 1,015 went absolutely crazy as the scorer and his teammates ran towards the home bench to celebrate. All of a sudden it looked like Salisbury would get an improbable result.
Stevenage had other ideas. On 87 minutes, Steve Morison broke away down the left wing. He looked to be offside when the ball was played but this was not spotted by the officials and play continued. He took a shot that deflected off a defender and straight into the path of Cole who slotted it in past Bittner. 3 minutes later and it was a Wessex League scoreline - Salisbury gave the ball away cheaply on the edge of the area and a cross found Cole in a similar spot in the box with a similar outcome.
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