Salisbury looking to bounce back in trip to Dover

Friday, 22 August 2025 05:55

Brian Dutton's Salisbury side will be looking to bounce back in this Saturday's fixture against Dover Athletic, after falling to their first defeat of the season against Bath City on Tuesday evening.

A single goal from Will Jenkins-Davies in the 40th minute was enough to give the Romans all three points, and once again, Salisbury drew a blank, making it three games without a goal to start the season.

As there had been against both Hampton & Richmond and Dagenham & Redbridge, there were promising sides as a team, barring three, made up of new players, beginning the season needing to gel.

The best chances of the game fell to Noah Coppin, who couldn't beat the keeper from a tough chance from just inside the box and then in added time to Will Buse. Salisbury's keeper up from a corner skied the ball over the bar from just a few yards out.

Brian Dutton felt it was a frustrating game:

Newly promoted Dover Athletic have had a good start to the season. Set aside their opening day defeat at home to AFC Totton, they have beaten both Bath City and Eastbourne Borough.

That opening day game saw them lose to AFC Totton, with both sides promoted the season before, it was The Stags who came out on top in a five-goal game. Totton raced into a three-goal lead by half-time, but were pegged back in the second half by Dover, with the match finishing 3-2 to the visitors.

Dover then went on to beat Bath City at Twerton Park, two second-half goals were enough to see them past the Romans, despite Alex Fisher getting the hosts back into the game with 10 minutes left on the clock.

On Tuesday evening, Dover travelled again, this time to Eastbourne Borough. A single goal in the 46th minute from George Nikaj was enough to win the game against big-spending Eastbourne.

Dover's management side told the club's website, "Salisbury Saturday. Can we keep the momentum up? Well, it’s going to be difficult. They play very similar to Bath, which is difficult to navigate. But obviously, we had Bath last week, so hopefully we’ve learned some lessons from that. If we can be as solid as we’ve been, there’s no reason why we can’t keep picking up points."