SALISBURY Rugby Club's first team made it ten wins out of ten, beating their hosts Bletchley to set up a top-of-the-table crunch match with Wiltshire rivals Chippenham.

With Salisbury's run of flying form showing no sign of ending, they have kept themselves in touch with the leaders and, on Saturday, have their first chance to close the gap by taking points off their fellow promotion hopefuls.

Salisbury are also playing catch-up in terms of fixtures completed and the weekend's match had been rescheduled due to waterlogged pitches.

Salisbury went into the match feeling confident, having registered a comfortable win over Bletchley at Castle Road early in the season.

The accurate kicking of Tom Pottage proved to be Salisbury's most valuable asset in what turned out to be a more closely-fought match than they might have anticipated.

It was Pottage who opened the scoring for the visitors, slotting an early penalty goal with just two minutes on the clock.

But although they were clearly in the ascendancy, it took 18 minutes for Dave Thorpe to cross the tryline and open up a significant lead.

Salisbury maintained an eight-point advantage for most of the first-half but were unable to take it into the break.

A lapse in defensive awareness allowed Bletchley's fly half to cross and convert his own try to bring the hosts back to within one point at the interval.

From the restart, Salisbury stepped up their game and always looked in control, maintaining possession and denying Bletchley's burly forwards the opportunity to build up any real attacking momentum.

In the 59th and 69th minutes, Bletchley were pressurised into giving away needless penalties.

Tom Pottage once again did the honours, picking up an extra six points.

It proved vital as frustration crept in.

Both sides lost a player to the sin bin and no further scores were achieved.

Despite the apparent slenderness of their winning margin, Salisbury were left reflecting with satisfaction on a valuable victory achieved through a solid defensive performance.

They now look forward to their trip to Chippenham, knowing that a victory could put them right back in the title race.

Salisbury's second string also continued their fine run of form, beating Wimborne 37-0.