Game 47: Salisbury City 0.1 Barrow (FA Trophy) 13.03.10

Decided to head up to the Ray Mac today to watch the FA Trophy Semi Final match between Salisbury and Barrow. This was the first leg of tie with the winners facing either Stevenage or Kidderminster at Wembley in May. It was no surprise to see a busy car park at the Ray Mac and a decision was made to put the kick off back to 3.15, as there was still a long queue outside the turnstiles at 2.50. The crowd was later given as 1782 with around 270 supporters from Barrow.



The first half was poor. Salisbury were playing a 4-5-1 formation leaving Matt Tubbs up front by himself. There was more head tennis than football on display and neither keeper had a busy half. The crowd was fairly quiet at the Salisbury end and the nerves on the terraces seemed to be affecting the players.

Barrow’s gameplan seemed to be to keep things tight at the back and catch Salisbury on the break and it wasn’t until the 17th minute that the game produced it’s first clear cut chance, with Turley unable to divert a cross from Anderson into the goal. In the 40th minute Giles had a shot over the bar and this seemed to spark the game into life. Barrow won a central freekick outside the area and Bittner made a good save from a strong shot on target.

The second half continued in a similar vein. Salisbury had most of the possession but weren’t able to break down the Barrow defence. In the 60th minute Tubbs had a good chance from a Clohessey cross, bursting through the defence and forcing a good save from Deasy. Deasy was in action a couple of minutes later when he beat Connolly to the ball only to be caught by the Salisbury striker’s late challenge. Connolly was given a yellow card after a minor scuffle with the Barrow central defenders.

In the 73rd minute Flood played a deep cross into the area and Tubbs managed to get a shot away that Deasy saved low by the left post. From the resulting goalkick, the ball was launched into the Salisbury area and Gregg Blundell ran onto the ball, beating the Salisbury defence. Bittner saved his first shot but it rebounded back to the striker. He then headed the ball past the stranded Salisbury keeper only to see it rebound off the post and up into the air. Turley was heading back to goal to try and cover the header but was powerless to stop Blundell bundling in the ball by the left post.

Salisbury pushed forward to try and get an equaliser. Clarke had a great chance from a flick on but his shot was aimed straight at the keeper. In the 7th minute of stoppage time Clarke tried to win the ball back in midfield with a sliding tackle. Although it looked to be a fair challenge, the referee decided that it was a dangerous challenge on the Barrow player and gave Clarke a red card. A bad end to a disappointing afternoon for the Whites.