SALISBURY City’s winless streak in Skrill Conference Premier rolls on as their quest to collect their maiden point on Saturday ended in a 3-2 defeat at Alfreton Town. Theo Lewis provided some relief for the Salisbury camp by breaking his side’s goalless duck at the Impact Arena inside 32 minutes, striking home Ricky Wellard’s driven cross, writes Joel Holt. But their lead lasted five minutes. Then sloppy defending at a set-piece, mainly down to Salisbury’s wall splitting, allowed John Akinde to smash home the wobbling ball inside the area, stemming from Josh Law’s free kick. The visitors, though, made an energetic start after the break, with Chris McPhee pulling the trigger a couple of times. And Luke Ruddick’s effort after charging into the area, being setup by Lewis, nestled frustratingly into the side netting. Then a long throw from Bradley Wood brought out some strange defending from the visitors as nobody took command to clear the ball, meanwhile Akinde took full advantage of the messy situation by effortlessly poking the ball beyond Will Puddy in front of the Town faithful. The hosts were lifted once they had completed their fight back and doubled their advantage through a gift 13 minutes from time.

Callum Hart’s misjudged back pass to Puddy was hunted down by Akinde and he punished Salisbury’s self-destructive error by sticking the ball into the empty net. The introduction of Ben Wright helped Salisbury’s case of taking a point back to Wiltshire when his sublime 25-yard free kick curled into the bottom corner. And Wright nearly salvaged a point till his dipping effort was brilliantly tipped over the bar by Town’s keeper Ross Atkins, which pulled curtains on the five-goal thriller. Salisbury are now third from bottom following a third successive defeat and Mikey Harris says he is “devastated” with the outcome. “I’m raging inside,” he told the Journal. “It’s becoming a standard interview for me post game, saying we have the better of the match and shoot ourselves in the foot. We’ve basically given them three goals. “We worked all week on defending free kicks and to say I was angry at half time was a massive understatement. “Then, in the second half, we decided to give them two more. And I’m devastated.” “We’ve got to learn and if individuals don’t take responsibility for their roles, we will struggle. “We’re three games in now and something has to change, we need to be more ruthless.”

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