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Whites beat Stoke City in impressive pre-season fixture as new signings shine

The momentum was set early doors as the Whites began the game on the front foot after Ollie Morgan dinked a ball into Bartolo's path in the first five minutes, but his shot was saved by the keeper.

Just five minutes later, Salisbury were on the attack again via an Odokonyero strike across the net (imitating his two strikes against Bristol Rovers), but the Potters' starting goalkeeper remained on form.

Robbie Gallagher was next in line to have a go at opening the scoring in the 12th minute after cutting in on his favoured right foot, yet he was thwarted by the goalkeeper once more.

After half an hour of relentless attacking football, the Whites finally got past the stubborn visiting goalie, as Bartolo finished off a rebound from Nathan's subsequent effort to put us a goal to the good.

The last chance of the first half came shortly after as a scramble in the box was unable to be converted by a navy blue shirt.

Despite the relentlessness of the opening 45, the Potters came out firing after the interval, as one of the opposition forwards battled his way through the Salisbury backline to land a strike on a quiet Will Henry's net, but it flew just over the bar.

The pressure from the visitors was short-lived, however, as Bartolo looked to double his tally for the evening from range but it just stung the gloves.

Although the Gibraltar international's strike did not go to waste, as a corner ball followed, landing at the feet of Luke Russe for a strike, which laid into the path of an alert Odokonyero, as he calmly caressed the ball into the right-hand corner.

Nathan Odokonyero (Image: John Rose)

After an intense hour of football from Brian Dutton's men, Stoke seized the opportunity to get back in the game, firing a header down low to Will Henry's right in the 66th minute.

For the last 20 minutes of the evening, after numerous substitutions, it was the trialists' time to shine.

Trialist B had a header caught from a corner and two minutes later Trialist D played a delicately dinked ball to Caine Bradbury in the box but some last-ditch defending stopped us from scoring a third.

Trialists A and C also found some space on the edge of the area to let fly but both strikes evaded the net.

The Whites are back on the road for our next pre-season game against Wimborne on Saturday 18 July.

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