Despite losing three players to the England colleges side, Hayes refused to seek a postponement, ala Bognor, and may now regret it as their unbeaten start to 2007 was brought to an abrupt halt against an excellent Salisbury City side this afternoon.

Salisbury began well, taking the game to the hosts, Luke Prince's cross was flicked on by Paul Sales but Kevin Davies was quick to touch the ball away from the head of a lurking Matthew Robinson and within a minute Prince again caused problems on the flank, his cross this time falling to Daniel Clay but Davies was equal to his volley.

We then created a couple of chances, Liam Feeney pounced on a weak defensive header by Aaron Cook but shot weakly at Ryan Clarke in the City goal and Kieran Knight got his head to a free-kick but this was easily held by Clarke.

City came back at us and on 24 minutes we were kept level by Jack Haverson, Davies punched clear but only found Prince who instantly lobbed the ball back over the keeper only for Jack to position himself on the line and head the ball away from under his own crossbar. The respite did not last long sadly, two minutes later tormentor Prince again crossed from the left, Adam Logie's clearance fell perfectly to Wayne Turk and he volleyed home into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

Will Hendry then saw a free-kick beat the wall but not Clarke and at the other end Sales should have done better but he headed Prince's cross wide of Davies goal. As the half entered the final third, Knight made space for himself on the edge of the City box before firing goalwards forcing Clarke to palm away his drive. Shortly after, a Feeney free-kick was met by Mark E'Bayer but his glancing header was wide of the target.

Minutes before the break we were dealt a critical blow when a ball lofted over a square back-line allowed Matt Tubbs to collect the ball and slot past Davies despite a universal call for offside that the officials dismissed.

City, looking every bit title favourites, almost got the perfect, if fortunate, start to the second half. Tubbs worked space on the left for a cross, it looped up over Davies before hitting the inside of the far post only for the Missioners stopper to claw it away before it crossed the line.

E'Bayer then worked an opening for Ryan Ashe but his 18 yard effort was held by the keeper as was a volley at the other end from Scott Bartlett. Within a minute it was 3-0, a right wing cross found an unmarked Sales four yards from goal, his header was superbly saved by Davies, the ball soon finding it's way back to the right side and the resultant cross was tapped home in the centre by a lurking Sales.

The game itself was now dead from our point of view as we failed to create a single decent opening in the 30+ minutes that followed, having said that the visitors only created one real chance and that saw Tubbs net his second on 77 minutes as he raced past Gilbert Nuako to beat Davies with ease.

Report by Kevin Watts. Photos by Ray Peploe.