Aided by a Des Boateng equaliser elsewhere for Welling against Hayes, Basingstoke Town guaranteed themselves Conference South football with a nil-nil draw at Salisbury.
Hayes now join Bedford and Weston-super-Mare for the drop, though financially troubled Farnborough may yet come to the London sides rescue.
Manager Francis Vines named the same side that had enjoyed a burst of form until the previous weeks Eastbourne home defeat and, in the early stages of a dour game, the visitors more than matched their lacklustre hosts.
In the 19th minute, Matt Warner fired a shot from the edge of the box narrowly wide.
Salisbury gradually came into the game more as the half progressed but failed to create any clear-cut chances and it was Carl Gibbs, fed by an exquisitely-weighted long ball from Jason Bristow, who came closest to scoring, forcing a good save out of Salisbury goalkeeper Ryan Clarke with a well-struck shot from a narrow angle just before the interval.
At halftime, news filtered through that Hayes were leading Welling one-nil but, Thurrock were being held by Sutton.
The second half was just as dour as the first, though Basingstoke went close when a Dean Lodge cross hit the top of the bar.
With 70 minutes gone, news arrived that Thurrock had taken the lead against Sutton and had in fact raced to a three-nil lead.
With Basingstoke at this point needing a win, Vines threw on strikers Cristian Levis and Ben Wright, but this only served to create gaps for Salisbury to exploit.
Scott Bartlett should have given the home side the lead when the ball fell to him in the box, but the wingers shot was poor and sailed past the post, while Wright had Basingstokes best chance but was only able to volley wide from the edge of the area.
With five minutes left, news of Boatengs equaliser for Welling reached the ground and the Basingstoke players started to sit on their point.
However, Salisbury continued to press and created a number of chances in the closing stages.
A nervous punch by Stuart Searle almost led to disaster but Aaron Cook was unable to guide the ball home from the edge of the area with a side-footed lob and midfielder Alexander Haddow connected cleanly with a Matthew Robinson cross, only to see the ball flash past the far post.
After an agonising three minutes of stoppage time, the final whistle went to the mass relief of the Basingstoke contingent. |
