Southern League West Division
Raymond McEnhill Stadium, Salisbury
Admission: £9.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 658
Match Rating: 3
With rail engineering works favouring a journey across the North Downs railway line today, I decided to head for Salisbury, from where I did consider catching a bus to near my completion of the Wessex League Premier Division at either Shaftesbury or Amesbury Town. But an attractive looking fixture between two teams going well in the league, at a well-appointed ground that would probably be more at home hosting football a couple of steps higher on the pyramid, made me choose to stay within the environs of Salisbury.
The Raymond McEnhill Stadium is about three miles north of Salisbury city centre, but a Plusbus ticket for just a £2 supplement on top of my rail fare covered the bus journey to the ground, which is located very close to Old Sarum, the site of the earliest settlement in Salisbury. After walking through a residential estate and then on the football clubs car park, the back wall of the main stand provides entrances for the club shop, reception and clubhouse, with the turnstiles to the side. The main stand is all-seater and provides good unobstructed views, although subject to a surcharge of £2. Stretching from the stand, around the corner and to the opposite corner flag there is covered terracing, well designed and attractively laid out, with steep terrace steps and a walkway along the balcony. A refreshments window is located by the clubhouse wall. Behind the other goal there are a few uncovered steps of terracing, as there are along the remaining length, although there are also two small metallic stands positioned either side of a large advertising hoarding by the half way line, both with an elevated position and requiring an additional £1 payment to enter. The ground is certainly impressive for this level of football, with modern facilities that feel comfortable, spacious and are easy on the eye for the most part, and is a legacy of the ground hosting Conference Premier football just three years ago. There is even an electronic scoreboard positioned above the open terrace behind the goal. It was good to see that Salisbury have not taken up the invitation of the Southern League to do away with printed copies of programmes (the league are trialling a policy of allowing clubs to publish an online programme for downloading instead), and the 32 page programme was a good read, with more than enough stats as well as welcome messages and penpics, although 14 pages were exclusively advertising.
After finishing as runner’s up only to lose in the play-off final last season, Salisbury are in the chasing pack again this time around, coming into this game in fourth place, having won eight and drawn four of their 15 league games so far. After winning the Western League Premier Division by 10 points last season, they have carried their momentum into the step above, and came into this game in second place, having won nine and drawn three of their league games.
On the first freezing cold Saturday afternoon of the season, with clear blue skies and sunshine, this was surprisingly a game that lacked quality for long periods, but was entertaining enough. Salisbury certainly had much the better of the first half and would no doubt have been kicking themselves at half time that did not have a lead to show after coming agonisingly close to scoring on several occasions, as the visiting goalkeeper looked nervous and their defence shaky.
The visitors were a team transformed after the break, losing the feel of an accident waiting to happen as they forced the play more and looked much more dangerous on the attack. Seeing a Salisbury shot come back off the post on 49 minutes was something of a false dawn for the hosts, as it was then Bristol Manor Farm's turn to come very close to scoring on a few occasions, before they did on 68 minutes. The ball was drilled forward into the feet of the division’s top scorer Dean Stamp, who turned and shot the ball low into the corner. Salisbury had a couple of chances to equalise, before they finally did on 87 minutes. The ball was curled into the box from a free kick out on the wing, and Kane O'Keefe met it with a header which saw the ball loop agonisingly over the keeper and into the net. Salisbury came so close to claiming all three points in added on time, when a header was just kept out by a defender by the post and then from 12 yards out and relatively all the time in the world to shoot, the ball was fired just over the bar. But the game ended level, which was probably a fair outcome of a match in which Salisbury were the better team before the break, and Bristol Manor Farm were after.
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