Salisbury FC continue pre-season with win over Winchester.
In their penultimate pre-season friendly, Salisbury faced a tough Winchester side in scorching heat.
These sides met twice last year, with both games ending in draws, 1-1 and 2-2, therefore, it was a perfect choice for Brian Dutton’s side to test where they are heading into their new season in the National League South.
Salisbury were kicking from right to left in the first half and their game almost started off horribly when, two minutes in, Salisbury keeper, Gosney, playing out from the back, laid it straight into the Winchester forward’s feet, a poor shot wide of the post saved the keeper’s blushes.
Salisbury were almost caught cold again with Jombati firing a careless pass into the Winchester number seven’s path, once again the one on one was missed, this time Gosney making a smart save.
Manager Brian Dutton, shouting from the stands, urged his Salisbury side forward and two minutes later, Perez played a lovely through ball to Hedges, who chipped over the keeper to make it 1-0.
Salisbury took control as the game progressed.
In the 10th minute left back Ragguette played the ball down the line in behind to Ramos who squared the ball across goal to Hedges, who made no mistake in slotting home to make it 2-0.
30 minutes into the game and Salisbury made it 3-0. Their 23 found the ball kindly landing on the edge of the box after a period of play in the Winchester area, and smashed it home into the top corner.
Salisbury seemed to dominate the game, but gave away a penalty in the 36th minute, when Winchester’s number 10 was brought down by the keeper in the box.
The number nine stepped up and had his shot saved, firing low to the right-hand side of the goal.
42 minutes gone Winchester won a corner, the ball was swung back and forth across the goal until it came off a Salisbury defender and fell into 10’s path who hit the net from close range.
At half time it was 3-1, and the second period of the game lacked creativity filled by constant substitutions.
A few good corners from Winchester led to 7 and 12 missing from within the 6-yard box. A final effort from Salisbury’s six was saved onto the crossbar, with the game finishing 3-1.
