Wealdstone 4 – 2 Salisbury City

Wealdstone

4 - 2

Salisbury City

KO: 0:00 | Sun 21st Nov ’04

A bright start in an important game for Wealdstone as they needed a win to start the climb away from the bottom of the table.

On top early on with some quick flowing football, Stones opened their account for the afternoon through Richard Jolly on 7 minutes, scoring from a Gary Burrell corner. Stones kept the pressure on their visitors and extended the lead on 12 minutes, when a Brian Jones pass split the visiting defence, and Jolly was on hand to run at the keeper , slotting the ball past him for a 2-0 lead.

This spurred Salisbury on, and as Stones seemed to rest a little it was the visitors that took command of the game, although they did little to trouble the home defence until the 24th minute. A half clearance from McKeown fell kindly for the visitors and a quick pass released Wallace. With Carter seemingly rooted to his line, the forward ran on and, beating the keeper close in, slotted the ball home to bring the visitors back into the game.

Play was then fairly even for a quarter of an hour, both sides creating half chances and Salisbury forcing Stones to defend a little deeper. From a Salisbury attack, Stones cleared their lines quickly and a clearance found Jolly on half way. His sweet pass through the visiting back line released Jermaine Beckford and his pace and skill took him past and wide of the onrushing goalkeeper, finally slotting home Wealdstone’s third from 18 yards, and so it remained until half time.

The second half saw Salisbury change the shape of their side a little and this certainly gave them the edge for periods in midfield, but it was Stones who created the better of the chances, Beckford seeing two one on ones saved, and Gary Burrell seeing a fierce strike touched onto the bar and away.

On the hour though, Stones extended their lead when Beckford returned the compliment to Jolly with a ball through the defence and he scored his second one on one of the game to complete his hattrick.

Salisbury continued to play their part however and were awarded a free kick on 71 minutes, struck wide of the wall but inside the post – another perhaps that Andy carter may have dealt with – to give the visitors some hope, but the score remained 4-2 and Stones took all three points.