HEDGES BAGS A COUPLE AS WHITES SINK GENERALS
ABUMPER crowd of 1,186 turned up at the Ray Mac Stadium to see second-place Salisbury defeat table-toppers Chesham in an endto-end game which ended with late drama.
The Salisbury manager Brian Dutton praised his “special group of players and special group of fans” claiming that “when they come together like that, we’re almost unstoppable”.
Salisbury started the game quickly, and took the lead inside the first five minutes as Noah Coppin slotted beyond Zaki Oulah following a mix up at the back by Chesham.
Just after the half-hour mark, the league’s top scorer, Ricardo German, had his first chance of the game, an overhead kick, go just over the bar.
After half time, Salisbury came out flying and almost doubled their lead as Chesham had to clear the ball off their line following a scramble in the box.
Shortly after the hour mark, Oulah pulled off a brilliant stop to prevent Dan Fitchett from scoring a diving header.
Salisbury weren’t kept out for long, as a few minutes later, Josh Hedges was played in behind the Chesham defence, his low driven shot from just inside the area leaving Oulah with no chance.
With 75 minutes played, the Generals were awarded a penalty after Brad Clayton was brought down in the box. Danger man, German, comfortably converted the penalty, sending Harry Lee the wrong way.
Chesham then looked to have found an equaliser in stoppage time, but saw Lewis Rolfe’s shot from close range run just wide of a post.
In the dying seconds of the game, Chesham sent everybody, including their goalkeeper, forward for a corner. Salisbury managed to clear their lines and played a ball through to Josh Hedges who celebrated before striking the ball to seal his brace.
Dutton said that the young wingers performance was “one of eleven man of the match performances” and praised his “old head on young shoulders”.