The Skrill Premier

Braintree Town 0

Salisbury City 1

Half time: 0-1

CHARLIE Sheringham’s solitary strike presented Salisbury City with a fifth away victory at the expense of tiresome ten-man Braintree Town.

The centre-forward’s 18th minute strike ended the Whites’ torrid run of seven matches without victory at the Amlin Stadium.

The decisive moment came from a well-worked set piece which saw long-serving Ryan Brett pump forward a high cross for Chris McPhee to flick on for Sheringham to scoop home – his second successive goal.

The home side, playing their seventh game in a fortnight, looked shattered from a backlog of Skrill Premier fixtures’, which had seen them surge to the play-off zone before today.

But the part-timers still carried a threat when attacking and their best chances of the half came from Dean Well’s driven shot and then James Bittner pulled off a fine save to scotch Kenny Davies’ lashed effort.

With Town subtly working their way into the encounter, they lost Sean Marks in the 43rd minute to a straight red card for elbowing James Clarke in the mouth.

Colin Lymer’s decision sparked controversy in the stadium, leaving home boss Alan Devonshire fuming, but the extra man was advantageous to City in the second period on a sandy pitch.

A brief early spell gave Dan Holman, on the swivel, an attempt and Jordan Cox weaved his way through but hesitated with the finish.

The last 20 minutes was dominated by the visitors as the ten-man hosts were lacking steam which gave Theo Lewis, Chris McPhee and Sheringham opportunities to seal it with a second. But the first half strike proved enough in Essex.

Boss Mikey Harris said: “It’s probably one of the worst games we’ve played in terms of quality.”

“It was all about battling and scrapping and we’ve nicked it through a set-piece.

“I didn’t see the sending off and I’ll look back on the DVD. But, for me, it was one incident in the game and we were winning at that point and I believed we would have held on if they had 11 men.

“I’m delighted with the win and the clean sheet.” City go to relegated Hyde on Tuesday night (7.45pm).

Salisbury (4-1-2-1-2): Bittner, Amankwaah, Wilson (c), Clarke, Brett, Lewis, Kamdjo (Wellard h-t), S.Sinclair, McPhee, Frear (Fitchett, 68), Sheringham.

Subs not used: George, White.

Scorer: Sheringham (18).

Att: 905.

Referee: Colin Lymer.

Star man: Theo Lewis.

Sent off: Marks (42).