SALISBURY City's second Blue Square Premier campaign is almost upon us and in tomorrow's visit of Burton Albion, Whites boss Nick Holmes is expecting the new season to get off to a highly entertaining start.

"Burton Albion is a great opening game for anyone who wants to come along expecting to see a really entertaining game of football," he said.

"Burton will be a handful and it's a great test for us."

The sides produced two memorable matches last term - Nigel Clough's Brewers winning a 4-3 thriller in the Midlands back in October, with the Whites gaining revenge with a 2-0 victory at the Ray Mac in February.

"The game at Burton had everything," recalls Holmes.

"We had Wayne Turk sent off and had to play with ten men for a long time but went further ahead and should have won."

However, Burton's never say die attitude saw them produce three late goals to take the spoils.

"It was a great spectacle for everybody and when we beat them down here, it was a good result.

"But I didn't think they were so good when we played them the second time because the surface wasn't to their liking.

"They want to get the ball down and pass it and, of course, our pitch towards the end of last season got a bit bumpy. It didn't seem to stop us playing some half-decent football but maybe we'd had a chance to get used to it."

Holmes is naturally keeping his starting XI for tomorrow close to his chest but has an early season selection headache due to three regular first teamers being unavailable.

Number one choice goalkeeper Ryan Clarke (foot) and new signing Rob Sinclair (knee) are both injured while midfielder Mike Fowler is sidelined for the opening two matches of the campaign due to suspension.

Holmes has bolstered his squad this week by completing the signing of former Weymouth midfielder Brian Dutton, who impressed during the club's pre-season friendlies, and last night added the signature of former Wycombe Wanderers and Swindon Town striker Charlie Griffin.

While City finished a highly creditable 12th in their debut campaign in the top flight of the non-league game, tomorrow's opponents reached the play-offs for the first time in their history - only to be undone by some controversial decisions in their semi-final first leg with Cambridge United.

The game is a mouth-watering curtain rasier to the campaign and Holmes knows his squad face a tough start but after last season's exploits, he insists his charges now have nothing to fear at this level of football.

"The only team to do the double over us last season were the side that won the league (Aldershot Town)," he added.

"That must show all our players that they have the right to believe in themselves.

"If they apply themselves this season, they are going to do well."

Kick off at the Ray Mac is 3pm.

Teams - Salisbury (from): Bittner, Bass, Robinson, Cook, Bond, Sangare, Bartlett, Turk, Herring, Widdrington, Sandell, Davies, D. Clarke, Feeney, Dutton, Matthews, Tubbs, Griffin.

Burton(probable): Poole; Brayford, James, Austin, Webster; Corbett, Simpson, McGrath, Gilroy; Banim, Pearson. Subs (from): Deeney, Bailey, Goodfellow, Holmes, Harrad, Stride.