WITH just two league games remaining, high-flying Salisbury's fate is increasingly out of their own hands.

The promotion hopefuls won again at the weekend to remain in second place in the table, three points adrift of champions-elect Chippenham, who also won on Saturday, defeating fourth-placed Cheltenham.

With time running out, Salisbury must now pin their slim title hopes on their old foes Swanage & Wareham doing them a huge favour and on Chippenham slipping up in their final match with Marlow.

The Dorset side, who are also going well in third place, have yet to play Chippenham and are now looking like the only side capable of halting the leaders' title dash.

Meanwhile, Salisbury's hosts on Saturday were Marlow, who went into the fixture off the back of three good wins, with confidence high.

But the anticipated display of high-octane rugby failed to materialise, thanks in large part to some very difficult weather conditions.

A strong, blustery wind made it almost impossible to kick with any degree of accuracy.

Initially the forward confrontation between the two sides was fierce, with both sides eager to dominate possession.

Salisbury had the better of the early exchanges and were rewarded in the tenth minute when Tom Pottage crossed to open Salisbury's account.

Dave Thorpe took the ball wide to set up the scoring opportunity but the fierce wind prevented Pottage from converting his own try.

However, with neither side playing their best rugby of the season, momentum was hard to come by and, although Salisbury worked hard to string together some quality passes, their efforts by and large came to nothing.

Just before half-time, the visitors moved into the comfort zone, full back Richard Lang going over to send them in leading 10-0.

The second half petered out as a spectacle, with few scoring opportunities created and even fewer points scored.

Salisbury did not score again and Marlow had to be content with an 80th minute penalty to earn their three consolation points.

Despite the dour nature of the contest, Salisbury departed well pleased with another maximum points haul, which keeps them on target to pursue promotion through the second-place play-off.

With another break in their now sparse fixture list coming up, Sal-isbury have plenty of time to prepare for the visit of High Wycombe to Castle Road on April 12 (3pm).

A home fixture against Henley Wanderers the following Saturday completes their season.

Salisbury's stand-in skipper Dave Bell said: "We are still winning our own games and that's all we can do.

"We are well-placed as long as we keep winning and, with just two games left to play, we are very excited about the possibility of the play-offs."

5:20pm Thursday 3rd April 2008

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