Ebbsfleet United 1 Salisbury City 2

Ebbsfleet United 1 Salisbury City 2

Blue Square Premier

Ebbsfleet team: Cronin; Crooks, McCarthy, Charles (c); Heeroo, Wills, Bailey, Welsh; Shakes, Vieira (Ginty, 82); Cumbers.

Subs (not used): Pooley, Forshaw, Shulton, Lamprell.

Scorers: McCarthy (90).

Salisbury team: Bittner; Clohessy, Turley (Cox, h-t), Prosser, Brown; Ruddick (Tubbs, 56), Clarke (c), Oastler (Sinclair, 68), Anderson, Flood; Webb.

Subs (not used): Spence, T. Osman.

Scorers: Flood (89), Sinclair (90).

Att: 792.

Referee: Stephen Ross.

TWO goals in the last two minutes ensured Salisbury City recorded back-to-back wins at Ebbsfleet United on Tuesday.

Tommy Widdrington rang the changes, with Matt Tubbs and Robbie Sinclair making way for Luke Ruddick to make his first start of the season and Joe Oastler to start for the first time since joining on loan, in a 4-5-1 formation.

After a cagey opening, Darrell Clarke had the first chance on 14 minutes. The skipper probably anticipated the arrival of goalkeeper of Lance Cronin who didn’t come, and he jabbed a good opportunity wide.

The Whites were barely threatened but struggled to make inroads themselves, Chris Flood failing to control a long Ruddick ball that would have set him away on 29 minutes, and Flood then saw a cross deflect into the goalkeeper’s arms seven minutes later.

Ebbsfleet’s Ricky Shakes should have done better than he did with a wayward shot after Ishmael Welsh’s cross broke to him on the edge of the box after 41 minutes.

Stefan Bailey was the culprit a minute later when he swung wildly after Luke Prosser failed to clear, prompting Ebbsfleet manager Liam Daish to kick a cardboard box onto the pitch in frustration.

Flood showed his trademark pace to get away with two minutes to go until the break, but he took a poor touch and Cronin smothered.

Luis Cumbers sent a glancing header into the side netting from a right wing ball after 52 minutes, and two minutes later Oastler smacked a header against the post from Sean Clohessy’s excellent deep cross.

Shakes played a neat one-two with Cumbers just after the hour, but again his shooting was awry.

Welsh got away on the break in the 64th minute, after Danny Webb’s shot was blocked, but the winger fired past the near post.

Then two minutes later Magno Vieira’s snapshot produced a flying save from James Bittner, who was under-employed up until then, and the resulting corner produced a nervous scramble for the Whites.

Clarke’s failure to clear on 77 minutes led to an opening for Vieira, but his low shot was tame and easily saved.

Salisbury won a free kick in a good position 20 yards out two minutes later, but substitute Tubbs sent it too close to Cronin.

Gavin Heeroo drew a fine low save from Bittner after 83 minutes, and the ball was quickly back in the Whites box as Cumbers shot over under pressure from Clohessy.

Then Salisbury struck first blood with just a minute to go, substitute Rob Sinclair getting to the byline and crossing for Flood whose header hit the post, but he reacted quickest to tap in.

The game seemed safe a minute into stoppage time, when Sinclair’s flicked header from a Tubbs cross went in off the far post.

But the Whites had to hold on because Paul McCarthy pulled back a soft goal a minute later, poking in unmarked from Cumbers’ ball into the box.

“I thought we were well worth the points,” said manager Tommy Widdrington.

“We stayed solid for the first 45-50 minutes and then gradually became more expansive with the changes we made.”