IT wasn't a boring stalemate by any stretch of the imagination, but both Salisbury and Eastleigh drew defensive satisfaction from yesterday's 0-0 Ryman Premier draw at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium.

While Salisbury's assistant manager Barry Blankley pointed proudly to a sixth clean sheet from the Whites' seven-match unbeaten run, Eastleigh boss Paul Doswell described his back four of Robbie Marshall, Chris Collins, Danny Rofe and Mark Blake as "sensational."

In many people's eyes, however, the best defender on the park was Eastleigh's former City marksman Paul Sales, who not only lived up to his reputation as one of the area's most gifted strikers, but put his aerial strength to good use when his side were up against at the back.

"Paul Sales defensively was unbelievable," said Doswell. "He was my man of the match by a long way. "We saved him against Windsor on Saturday because his body wouldn't allow him to play two full games in three days.

"He'd have been so stiff afterwards that he'd have come here and pulled a groin, a hamstring or something."

With Sales's strike partner Andy Forbes named on the bench after complaining of a dead leg, Eastleigh went with a 4-5-1 formation in the first half and were largely outplayed by a hungry-looking Salisbury side anxious to avenge February's 3-0 defeat at the Sparshatts Stadium.

Spurred on by the stadium's biggest ever league crowd of 1,151, Robbie Matthews skied a good chance over at the far post from Tommy Widdrington's free-kick before the lively Matt Tubbs sent an overhead kick into the side netting.

Whites went closer still on 26 minutes when Craig Davis combined well with Matthews on the right and then delivered a tempting cross which Shaun Hale headed just wide of the far post.

Matthews, Davis and Tubbs all rained in shots as Salisbury maintained the pressure, but none of them seriously troubled Eastleigh keeper Wayne Shaw, who was recalled in place of finger injury victim Lee Webber.

Eastleigh, in contrast, carried plenty of threat up front when Forbes came on for the ineffective Shaun Dyke at the start of the second half.

Once they had survived the scare of a Matthews header being cleared off the line by Christer Warren, the visitors had Salisbury at full stretch with Sales hooking one shot narrowly over and Forbes's header smacking the post after Sales had been left in acres of space to cross.

Salisbury's Scott Barlett then cleared another Sales effort off the line before Eastleigh threw on another striker, Craig McAllister, in place of Danny Rofe.

The lively Tubbs and City's man-of-the-match Aaron Cook both tested Shaw in the closing stages, but it was Salisbury keeper Kevin Sawyer who pulled off the save of the match from Forbes in the 84th minute shortly before Danny Smith got the ball in the net only to be penalised for offside.

Two minutes into injury-time Widdrington fouled fellow ex-Saint Thomas in the 'D' but Ryan Ashford's trusty left foot let him down as he curled the free-kick over.

His effort earned hearty applause from Sawyer, who was none too impressed with the Eastleigh midfielder for clapping his mistake from a similar situation at the Sparshatts Stadium.

"In the second half I felt we could have nicked it but, if everyone was being honest, a draw was spot on," said Doswell, whose play-off chasers have risen to third again following defeat for Braintree.

"Both teams were playing their second game inside 72 hours and the players deserve huge credit for that. Two games in three days is tough at this level.

"Salisbury had a lot of corners and they must have had about 20 long throws by Craig Davis, which was a big bombardment, but we defended them all."

Blankley summed up: "It was far from being a boring game. From our point of view the most pleasing thing is another clean sheet. We've worked hard on defending in training and six clean sheets out of seven is no coincidence."