With Salisbury scoring in each half through Tommy Wright and Steve Walker, Frome couldn’t find a way back into this match, and despite Salisbury having goalkeeper Nathan Ball sent off on the hour, they ran out comfortable 2-0 winners on the day.
Frome were able to welcome back Jordan Walker and Jake Jackson after injury and suspension. Sam Teale showed no adverse reaction to his first match last week, but, with Dan Cleverley unavailable, Mitchell Page suspended, and Marcus Mapstone on the subs bench and not quite match fit, this was always going to be a test against a side doing well in the Southern South and West and containing former Robins Claudio Herbert and Brandon Mundy.
An even start saw both sides getting to grips with the excellent surface and the rain that was starting to fall heavily. A Salisbury header flew past the post in the 6th, but Frome looked to be stringing moves together at the other end that might lead to a breakthrough.
After a quarter of an hour it was looking promising, but then the first blow of the afternoon happened as Jordan Walker pulled up sharply clutching his right hamstring, to be substituted by Josh Ferguson a few minutes later.
Further problems arrived six minutes later as Sam Teale was caught by a late challenge that left him requiring treatment for a painful right ankle, but as he carried on, the injury was to feature in Salisbury’s opening goal.
As Frome lost possession easily in the opponent’s half, Salisbury’s Tommy Wright was able to make ground on the right, and as he cut easily inside the hobbling Teale, he struck a well hit right foot shot past Darren Chitty to open the scoring with the hosts’ first real attack of the match.
A fairly innocuous looking challenge in the 30th from George Miller resulted in a melee that lasted for a few minutes before order was restored, and when the dust had settled, the result was a yellow card draw with yellows being shown to Frome’s Miller and Davies and to Salisbury’s Whelan and Walker.
Despite Frome having the better of the remaining quarter, they seemed unable to carve out a clear shooting opportunity and even though they had three or four good looking attacks in this period, the ball never seemed to drop kindly.
Salisbury were able to clear with ease and Nathan Ball hadn’t had to make a real save for the whole of the half.
Frome had a great chance to draw level right at the start of the second half as a perfect ball from Darren Jefferies put Jon Davies in on goal, but his left foot shot flew over the bar from 15 yards, and with Frome still struggling to find the telling ball, a string of borderline decisions led to Salisbury’s second goal in the 57th.
As Clayton Green appeared to be pushed from behind, the linesman adjudged him to have handled the ball, and as the free kick was swung in, the greasy ball was spilled by Chitty, but he reacted quickly and picked the ball up quickly.
Again the linesman intervened and flagged for a corner, and as this was sung in perfectly from the left, the Frome defence seemed to go missing and Steve Walker headed home easily from six yards.
Three minutes later, the match changed again as Connor Roberts moved forward and found a pass that set Josh Ferguson free and through on goal, but as he rounded Nathan Ball, the home keeper took him down and was immediately shown a red card. Kane O’Keefe took over the keeper’s jersey and proceeded to save Davies’ curling free kick much to the amusement of the home crowd.
Sam Teale’s injury finally forced his substitution in the 67th with Tom Golledge replacing him, but with Green having to drop back to centre half. Frome had lost much of their shape and were struggling to make any impression on Salisbury despite having the extra man.
Despite having the lion’s share of possession for the remainder of the match, Frome were unable to mount an attack that brought a real save from the stand in Salisbury goalkeeper and, with Salisbury content to defend their two goal advantage, the match fizzled out quietly, though Salisbury almost made it 3-0 right at the end, only the post denying them their third.
Darren Jefferies was awarded the H&B Tyres Man of the Match award, and some observers claim that he had the distinction of having received two yellow cards without a red, though in a match where yellow cards were far more abundant than shots on goal, that may or may not be true. Crowd: 832. Entertainment Value: 3/5.
Colin Carpenter
