Salisbury boss Nick Holmes was happy with his side's comprehensive win at Thurrock, but knows City could easily have won by an even more convincing margin.

They cruised to a 5-1 success despite being caught up in a gridlocked M25 en route to the Essex club's Ship Lane ground, that wrecked Whites' pre-match schedule.

"It wasn't an ideal preparation we had today," said Holmes after the game.

"We left at a quarter-to-ten and arrived at two - a trip that should have been two hours has took us four and a quarter!

"But you can't complain about winning 5-1.

"They were down to ten men at the end and it got easy, but I'd still like us to do the positive things that we work on all the time.

"In the last ten minutes we went back to doing that and we created a few more chances."

The win lifted Whites to second in the table on goal difference, but Holmes accepts City may well have played Thurrock and Farnborough Town - the two sides they have beaten so far - at just the right time.

"It's a nice start, but to be honest you've got to take advantage of teams like that.

"Farnborough have got their administrative problems but they weren't a bad side.

"Thurrock are going through a torrid time - they've been decimated by losing most of their players to Hornchurch, and the manager's brought in players who haven't played at this level before."

Holmes had clearly done his homework on Thurrock and was expecting to return home with the three points.

"Having seen them on Monday night getting beaten by Eastbourne, we knew that this was a game that we could and should win, and should win comfortably.

"The scoreline tells us we've done that.

"Individually they've got some good players, but collectively they're not there yet."

After Wayne Turk cancelled out Thurrock's second minute goal, Matt Tubbs put them in front with a spot kick awarded for a contentious hand-ball.

"He handled it," said Holmes. "It came up and hit him. Some you get, some you don't. There was a much more blatant penalty later on that wasn't given."

Paul Sales then added a third before he and strike partner Tubbs were replaced by Robbie Matthews and Alex Haddow.

"Matthews added two more goals as Whites enjoyed some shooting practice.

"We were without Declan (McGregor) today, so it's nice having Robbie and Alex to come on and terrorise the defence.

"They've both done well, but people must understand that Sales and Tubbs have already done the really hard work."

Looking ahead to City's match with fellow high-fliers Newport County on Tuesday evening, Holmes warned: "That will be much more difficult. It'll be a totally different encounter.

"They'll be a completely organised side. It'll be a much sterner test for us. Newport fancy themselves to be a top six side this season and all the reports we've had on them would suggest that."