A CLASSY double from Justin Bennett saw Salisbury peg back a two-goal deficit and snatch a 3-2 victory against Didcot Town – but boss Steve Claridge was bewildered with the plummet in attendance.

Sam Barder boosted the struggling Oxfordshire visitors with a brace inside the opening 34 minutes.

And had Ben Whitehead tapped in from the six-yard box, it could have been an entirely different outcome.

Instead, Tommy Wright halved the deficit seven minutes before the interval.

Eddie Perrett, on as a second half substitute, slid in fellow Bishopdown resident Bennett with a neat through ball and the striker levelled.

With six minutes remaining, Lewis Benson provided a low cross that was stabbed home by Bennett, who has been benched for the past five games and is staking his claim for a first team spot.

The three points lift Whites up to eighth and two points off the play-offs in Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South and West.

But the victory was marred by the second lowest attendance of the season with 496, according to Claridge.

“I won’t last a season at this rate,” he laughed.

“Every game here is just incredible isn’t it? But I cannot believe people, yet again, haven’t turned up.

“What do you want to watch? Is this not the most exciting football you’ve ever seen at this football club? Every game is an absolute cliff-hanger.

“I have to say it’s terrible for the heart. It must be fantastic to watch and yet people don’t want to watch it.

“I’m really disappointed with that. Some 150 to 200 people have chosen not to come tonight.”

“If you’re a true fan would you choose Champions League football over this game? You wouldn’t, would you? So I’m disappointed.

“We have got fantastic support but that’s the one thing that has disappointed me.

“We’ve got some people who, if we lose a game, don’t decide to watch us.

“We thought we’d get 600-700 every week, and we got that last year.

“So how the average has gone down this year, serving up some of the football we serve up, I don’t know.”

Whites have no game this weekend as scheduled opponents, Swindon Supermarine, are in FA Cup action.

They return to the field on Tuesday night with the visit of Dorchester Town in the Southern League Cup.