Salisbury travelled to Maidenhead on Saturday hoping to build on the momentum generated by back-to-back wins over Swanage & Wareham. Unfortunately the visitors failed to take their chances eventually losing by a single point having led for most of the match.

Salisbury started strongly and were impressive during the first quarter. Their efforts were rewarded with an unconverted try for skipper Gareth Blackborow on 23 minutes but progress was limited.  Salisbury could only add a penalty from Charlie Jennings before halftime and the hosts remained very much in contention having scored an unconverted try shortly afterwards.

With the score at 8 - 5 in the visitor's favour, the match was very much in the balance during the second period. Salisbury's cause wasn't helped by a yellow card for Arnie Vyas minutes after the restart. They didn't score again until Rory Davis slotted a penalty to stretch the lead to 11 - 5 on 64 minutes. This wasn't enough to secure the win; Maidenhead scored a try in the corner 10 minutes from time and, despite a difficult conversion, added the extras to take the lead for the first time at 12 - 11. The score-line remained unchanged.

This was certainly a match that Salisbury could have won but too often they failed to convert pressure into points and kicked away possession. Blackborow was clearly frustrated by the performance ..."Hugely disappointing to lose a game we should have won. Against Coney Hill this Saturday we have to be more clinical in attack, if we make the most of our chances to score then there is no reason why we can't beat the league leaders"

The loss pushes Salisbury into sixth, one below Maidenhead. All at the club will be hoping for a more positive result when Coney Hill visit Castle Road next Saturday.

Team: Richard Roe (pictured), Luke Tunabuna, Robert Larcombe, Simon Quick, Leon Taylor, Charlie Jennings, Andrew Herriott, Luke Esnouf, Dan Hobbs, Gareth Blackborow (Capt), Shane Johnstone, Arnie Vyas, Dave Salomon, Jon Kay, Josh Green. Subs: Phil Sutton, Nick Taylor, Rory Davis.