Salisbury 2 Poole Town 0
Southern League - Premier Division South
Admission / Programme - £14 / £2.50
Regular subscribers to my blog, and indeed the patrons who pay a monthly subscription to access the Podcasts that run alongside it, will recall back in pre-season I visited Dorchester Town. I talked about Dorchester being one of two grounds in England that I considered to be the best, that I hadn’t previously seen a game at.
The other was Salisbury.
Salisbury Football Club play at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium in the Old Sarum area of the City, and it’s a venue that they only moved to in 1997, having previously played at Victoria Park, which was indeed a park in the centre of the City. In terms of allowing the club to progress, well, it simply didn’t!
I’ve got to be honest though, in my 51 years of residing on this planet, I’ve never been to the City of Salisbury, in fact I’ve never really been anywhere near it. So, as I’ve gradually been working my way down the Step 3 and 4 lists this season, ordinarily in distance from home order, the boys from Wiltshire have started to appear on the radar. But this one felt that bit more interesting, a bit more exciting, perhaps even a little sexy, and certainly capable of inducing a small amount of uncontrolled wee.
But, on the day, I very nearly didn’t make it, thanks to social media and my misinterpretation of it!
The weather of course had been ‘blankety blank’ over the previous week, we’d had snow, rain, volcanic lava, you name it, we’d had the lot, but to be fair to Salisbury they chucked a Tweet out on Friday night stating that barring a ‘wild’ weather event overnight, the game against Poole Town would be taking place.
That would do for me, so I set off, all was good in the World, Saturday morning had seen a game preview posted, what could possibly cause this one to go bustage up?
Well, I’d had a bacon sandwich before I set off, and by the time I was turning off the M1 onto the A43 I felt like I needed a drink, so I stopped at the services on the roundabout at the Towcester turn. I had a quick glance at my phone and noticed the club had put a further Tweet out….
“Hold It…” were the only words, with a GIF thingy posted underneath of a bloke in what looked like a blizzard. My initial thoughts were that we had a problem of the weather variety, but at the same time, I did think any question marks about the game would surely be significantly clearer due to the potential ramifications?
So, I did indeed “Hold It”, sitting in the services for a while, but nothing more came, from either club. I knew that once I’d got onto the M40 and then turned off onto the A34, it was shit or bust time. I had Salisbury or Salisbury to go to, but, if I was on the M40 and we did indeed have a problem, I had a plastic back up down in the capital in the form of regular back up plan, Rayners Lane!
The exit on the M40 was reached and I was in queueing traffic, I sneaked a look, no news about the game but a new signing had been announced, was that what we were indeed hanging on for? So, it seemed the uncertainty was unfounded, all was indeed good in Old Sarum!
A good tootle down the A34 followed, apart from a hold up in the Oxford area, and before long it was onto the famous A303, a road sung about by the Levellers on the track ‘Battle of the Beanfield’. Andover was bypassed before eventually taking a scenic route down past Porton Down and into Old Sarum, which in itself meant that the infamous city centre traffic was avoided. By now it was a quarter to two and the car park at the ground was pretty packed, but I got into it, and it was clear that a good sized crowd was going to be in attendance.
The ground itself is situated in the middle of a newly built housing estate, so access to and from it is via the one road, and there are restrictions around parking, so if you didn’t make the car park, it could be a tricky as to where to dump the car.
The ground is a cracker, with a capacity of 5,000, you have a large main stand that runs three quarters of the length of the South side. With a good number of seats set within it, you also have a bar area at the top, with a sponsors and officials viewing balcony in front of it. Sandwiched between the upper tier bar area and the seats at the bottom are the club offices and dressing rooms, which also, set to the rear, and accessible before entering through the turnstiles are a Club Shop and a further bar area.
At the West end of the stand it turns into covered terracing, which then extends all the way round the West end of the ground providing a steep rake of steps where excellent views of the field of play can be had. Further terracing albeit uncovered and not as steep runs along the North side of the ground and extends round to the East side, albeit on the North side two Atcost style seated stands sit on plinths.
Is it Football League standard, well if it’s not, it can’t be far off?
The history of the club is one of peaks and troughs, with the Ray Mac (as it’s known locally) being the catalyst of the club reaching it’s peak, but as we’ve seen many times before, it quickly went wrong. The original Salisbury City were formed in 1905, playing in the Western League, before they folded at the onset of the Second World War. A new incarnation, called simply Salisbury, re-appeared in the Western League in 1947, before gaining promotion to the Southern League in 1968 where they stayed until 1993, when they changed name again, this time adding the suffix ‘City’.
This is when the fun started, in 1995 the Southern Division championship was won and with it came promotion to the Premier Division. That was followed by a number of mid-table finishes (and a move to the Ray Mac) before relegation sent them back to the regional Southern divisions in 2002.
A one season spell in the Isthmian League Premier Division came in 2004-05, and the elevation came as a result of restructuring, but within a year they were moved back across to the Southern League and that was won at the first attempt, bringing about a promotion to the Conference South.
An immediate runners up spot saw them elevated to the top table of non-league thanks to a Play-Off Final victory over Braintree Town, culminating in a three season spell. However by now financial difficulties beset the club, administration followed and the club were demoted two levels back to the Southern League Premier Division.
Promotion came immediately thanks to a Play-Off Final victory over Hednesford Town. Then two seasons later came another Play-Off Final, this time against Dover Athletic, and once again, at the start of the 2013-14 season, the top table was returned to.
It lasted one season, a mid-table finish meant nothing because the club were expelled from the competition due to missing a deadline to clear outstanding debts. Salisbury City Football Club had gone.
The City had a season without a club, but then in time for the 2015-16 club, a new Salisbury FC were good to go, playing at the Ray Mac, winning the Wessex League at the first attempt. The following season a runners up spot in the Southern League South Western Division saw them lose out to Tiverton Town in the Play Off Final, but the following year they did win a place back in the Premier Division, where they remain.
The current club reached the FA Vase semi-final in 2015-16, losing to Hereford FC, whereas the previous guise of the club had some impressive exploits in the cups.
The competition proper of the FA Cup has been reached on numerous occasions, with highlights including games against Hull City, Grimsby Town, Port Vale, Sheffield United (in the Third Round), Sheffield Wednesday and indeed Nottingham Forest who were held to a draw at the Ray Mac in front of the TV cameras.
The FA Trophy quarter finals have been reached on numerous occasions, while the semi-final was reached in 2009-10, only for the Whites to lose to Barrow over two legs.
So, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for the fans of Salisbury, but what about the current campaign, is the National League South within grasp? Sat second in the table to Chesham United before the game against Poole, they are well placed, and with a crowd of just under 1,000 in attendance, they strengthened their chances with a 2-0 victory.
The pivotal moment came just before the hour mark when after a spell of Poole pressure (who were very well supported vocally and perhaps a little boisterously!), Salisbury goalkeeper Harrison Lee produced a fabulous double save to deny both Toby Holmes and Jamie Whisken. The ball immediately broke and Salisbury went straight up the other end and grabbed the second goal through Ryan Penny who curled a shot into the top corner.
Poole were awarded a penalty in injury time when Holmes was pulled to the floor by Sido Jombati, but the same players weak effort was easily saved by Lee.
So, once again, the best I’ve never had, has finally been done, and to think, a cryptic player signing announcement almost saw me miss it!
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