Saturday 27 August 2005 - Twerton Park - kick off 3.00pm Southern League Premier Division

City received their first setback of the afternoon when skipper Bobby Ford was ruled out with a stomach bug which forced manager John Relish into shelving his plans to rest Adie Harris. Also missing was keeper Paul Evans due to his hamstring problem, Andy Fisher taking his place between the posts. Any excitement during the opening minutes was confined to referee Mr Linnington’s over-zealous use of his yellow card. Salisbury’s Tubbs could have few complaints about his caution for a two-footed lunge at Jon Holloway in the first minute. However, when the same player ran into the City defender a couple of minutes later the booking handed to Holloway seemed bizarre to say the least. Shortly afterwards City were forced to play for over ten minutes a man short while Jim Rollo was off the pitch receiving attention for a cut head. Phil Walsh also came off worse in a challenge with Cook, suffering a gash on his forehead. Understandably, during this period it was the visitors who saw most of the possession although only a long range effort from Tubbs, which Fisher pushed over the bar, ever looked like giving them the lead. However, when City were restored to full strength they struggled to wrest the initiative back and just past the half hour mark fell behind. Widdrington’s speculative long range effort took a deflection off Rollo to send the ball looping past a wrong-footed Fisher and into the net via the underside of the crossbar. The remainder of the half say Salisbury comfortably deal with City’s increasingly woeful long balls forward and they almost doubled their advantage just before the break, Sales heading a corner narrowly wide.

This escape was only short-lived though as a minute after the restart Salisbury struck again. Tubbs turned a flat-footed Holloway and fired a shot that Fisher got a hand to but couldn’t prevent dribbling into the net. City’s response to this saw Steve Jones get their first shot on target, though Sawyer had little difficulty in claiming his 25-yard effort, but this proved to be nothing more than a brief flash of hope for the home supporters. The introduction of Martin Paul on 54 minutes for the out-of-sorts Walsh did liven up City’s front line but not to the extent of ever really threatening the Whites. In fact, three minutes after his arrival only a linesman’s flag denied Salisbury another goal when Davis headed home. Paul did get a header on target after 76 minutes but it was increasingly clear that the game had drifted away from City and their misery was compounded eight minutes from time. Coupe was felled by an elbow from Tubbs and, although the referee awarded City a free-kick, his failure to take further action against the Salisbury striker incensed the City no.5. Three times he was told to go away by the official but he went back for one more go, leaving him no option but to show Coupe a second yellow card. That was that as far as City were concerned and the rest of the game was little more than a matter of waiting for the final whistle to signal City’s first defeat of the season and end their week long spell at the top of the table.