Salisbury FC come from behind to beat Hanwell Town away

The win, coupled with second-placed Gosport Borough losing 2-0 to Chesham United, saw the Whites go five points clear at the top of the Southern League Premier South.

Brian Dutton made three changes to his starting lineup; Josh Sommerton returning from injury to replace Jamar Smith, and Tom Bragg and Dan Fitchett coming in for Ryan Penny and Sam Ashton.

A quiet first 10 minutes saw Salisbury’s Josh Hedges put a deflected effort straight at Hanwell keeper Sam Beasant but very little else in the way of goal-mouth action.

On 10 minutes Josh Gould in the Whites goal was called into action for the first time, needing strong wrists to beat away Sam Evans’s shot from the edge of the area.

On 14 minutes Salisbury appeared to have taken the lead, only for the goal to be chalked off. A corner was recycled into the box to Charlie Gunson and although he slotted it home, a lengthy discussion between the officials eventually saw an offside given and the goal disallowed.

That seemed to galvanise Hanwell and they saw a lot more of the ball and eventually took the lead on 24 minutes.

A corner from the left was swung in and Dwayne Duncan rose high to power a header across goal and into the back of the net.

#Just two minutes later the home side doubled their advantage through Evans. The ball was lost in the Whites midfield and played down the middle, where the Hanwell striker showed good composure to slot the ball beyond Gould and into the net.

As the half ticked on the Whites started to see more of the ball, albeit unable to fashion anything to trouble Beasant.

There was a couple of dangerous ball into the box but it took until time added on for anything resembling a chance to be created.

Good work from Noah Coppin on the left saw him win a corner for his team and when the ball was swung in Duncan could only head it towards his own goal with the ball bouncing down off the underside of the bar and into the grateful grasp of Beasant to send Hanwell in with a two goal advantage.

Salisbury came out for the second half fired up and just two minutes into it Fitchett could have grabbed a goal back, but his flick header was wide of the post after a good ball in from Hedges.

The game changed on 55 minutes when new signing Harry Williams was introduced from the bench and the White’s formation was slightly tweaked. Just 7 minutes into his debut he got his first goal, latching on to Hedge’s clever ball inside the fullback and slotting it home across Beasant and into the back of the net.

It took a further five minutes for Salisbury to draw the game level and again Williams was involved.

His burst down the left-hand side was illegally halted by a Hanwell defender and when the referee pointed to the spot, captain Sido Jombati stepped up and calmly fired the ball into the corner to even up the score.

From then on it was all Salisbury and on 73 minutes Aaron McCreadie pulled a shot wide from the edge of the box and four minutes later Williams shot wide after showing some quick feet inside the box.

On 79 minutes Hanwell were reduced to 10 men, Fabio Sole shown a second yellow card for kicking the ball away.

As the game entered the final 10 minutes further half chances for Williams and Aaron Simpson looked like it may be it for the Whites but, as has been the case in recent weeks, they kept going and grabbed a winner on 87 minutes.

Williams was involved again, refusing to allow the ball to go out for a corner and crossing in for Wayne Robinson to acrobatically flick the ball into the back of the net and seal the 3 points.

The Whites are back in action next Saturday, November 25 when they welcome Dorchester Town to the Ray Mac stadium for a 3pm kick-off.

Dutton points to his side's form as a reason to get down to the Ray Mac, and says both the players and the club's chairman deserve to see 1,000 people in the stands. 

He said: "This game wont be a gimme, that's for sure, and [manager] Tom Killick will know how to organise his side to make the game difficult".