Today I'm going back 13 years to 2009 and York City's Blue Square Bet Premier (National League) visit to the Raymond McEnhill ("the Ray Mac") Stadium on the outskirts of Salisbury to play Salisbury City. The official attendance was 1,266.
These days Salisbury seems to be infamous as a place to go to have a Pizza at Zizzi's and it also has a cathedral that is particularly popular with Eastern European tourists. Yes, of course I'm joking about a matter that is actually pretty serious as it demonstrates Vladimir Putin's willingness to attempt to assassinate people (and endanger innocent civilians) in other countries. In March 2018, Sergei Skripal, a Russian Military Officer and double agent for the British intelligence services and his daughter Yulia were the victims of a poisoning attack in Salisbury. It was later stated that the pair were poisoned by a nerve agent known as Novichok. As a result, a significant part of Salisbury was locked down for investigation and decontamination by the authorities to ensure that there was no possibility of further casualties from the use of the military grade nerve agent. Following intensive investigation work the British authorities identified two persons "of interest" in their investigations but requests to speak to the individuals (undercover Russian intelligence officers) were resisted. The two men concerned claimed in the Russian media that they were ordinary tourists who wanted to visit Stonehenge, Old Sarum and Salisbury's "famous" 123-metre spire (!). I'm not sure where exactly the spire is famous but surely not in this country. It is not known whether the two men also wished to visit the Ray Mac but I feel sure that they would have done.
Today's featured game was settled after only three minutes via a penalty scored by Salisbury's prolific striker Matt Tubbs. Salisbury then proceeded to hang onto their lead for the remaining 87 minutes, a task made more difficult when Ryan Taffazolli was sent off with five minutes remaining. Sadly for York it was Salisbury who took all the spoils. Tubbs left Salisbury at the end of the season after 278 appearances and having scored 124 goals and joined Conference title contenders Crawley Town. Tubbs goals pushed Crawley to the Conference title in 2011 and by the time he left the club to join League 1 AFC Bournemouth he had scored 58 goals in 79 appearances. Tubbs later played for a succession of clubs including Portsmouth and AFC Wimbledon and is now to be found in a player-coach role at Bashley in the Wessex League.
Despite the result in the featured game, Season 2009/10 was actually quite a good one for York City under Martin Foyle and they ended the season in 5th place thereby qualifying for the Play-Offs. The Play-Off Semi-Finals brought City's favourite opponents in the form of Luton Town and York beat them 1-0 both home and away. Sadly, in the Play-Off Final at Wembley York lost 3-1 to Oxford United and were condemned to another season in the Conference. For Salisbury City however the season ended up being nothing short of a disaster and, despite finishing mid-table in 12th place they were initially docked 10 points for going into administration before being demoted to the Southern League Premier Division for failing to exit administration. Champions that season were Stevenage Borough. Forest Green Rovers were reprieved from relegation due to the demise of Salisbury and only two clubs were actually relegated due to their on-field performance: Ebbsfleet United and Grays Athletic. Salisbury's Matt Tubbs and York's Richard Brodie ended the season as joint leading scorers in the Conference with 26 goals each.
CRB Match No. 1715
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