SALISBURY City's young turks had the look of champions about them on Saturday - and it wasn't just because of the all-white Real Madrid-esque strip they wore - as they demolished Sittingbourne to climb ever closer to the summit of the Eastern Division, writes Mike Turner.

Few among the 609 crowd at Old Sarum could complain about the entertainment value provided by Nick Holmes' side who have matured beyond their tender years since their Hillsborough defeat.

A succession of non-league sides have seen their season come unstuck following an FA Cup First Round exit at the hands of a Football League side. But City have simply taken the Sheffield Wednesday experience on board and decided they like the taste of the high life. They put three past Sittingbourne, but it could and really should have been seven or eight.

The victory stretched Salis-bury's unbeaten run to 16 games in the league and with rivals Histon on FA Trophy duty, took them above the Cambridgeshire outfit who they meet this weekend.

Matt Tubbs lit the torch fuse with less than three minutes gone on the clock.

City had already forced their second corner of the game and from it Tubbs diverted Stuart James' precise delivery into the net with a sweet header.

Salisbury pressed forward at every opportunity with succinct flowing passes which constantly tore the Brickies apart.

Tubbs was never far from the action, but the work-rate of colleagues such as Wayne Turk, Scott Bartlett, Craig Davis and Wallace was awesome and typified the overwhelming desire to win instilled in this side.

Josh Thomas was rock solid whenever the visitors' forwards attempted to give their defenders some respite, but in truth, Kevin Sawyer had little to do in the City goal all afternoon.

In contrast, Tubbs and Wall-ace were wreaking havoc at the other end. Subtle twists and turns had their markers in knots and on another day, both City players would have left the fields with hat-tricks to their names.

On 37 minutes Salisbury's pressure resulted in a much-deserved, if somewhat overdue, second goal.

A Bartlett cross was forced behind for a corner and James' delivery again caused uncertainty in the Sittingbourne defence. Thomas arrived late at the far post and side-footed the ball into the net.

Whites could have added two more before the interval but Wallace fired wide on 44 minutes and then shot straight at Kevin Fewell in the Sittingbourne goal.

Five minutes into the second half he surged into the box from the right only to be bundled over. Coolly he slotted home the penalty himself from the shortest of run-ups, sending Fewell the wrong way.

Anyone expecting an avalanche of goals - and let's face it - that was most of us, such was City's domination of proceedings, were frustrated as chance after chance went begging.

Sittingbourne, tall and often physical, were there for the taking, but somehow the home side failed to add to their tally.

Wallace unselfishly set up Davis who skied the ball over, Fewell denied Tubbs, Strong (on for Turk) sent one sailing by before Matt Holmes (a replacement for Thomas) also failed to hit the target.

Whites had done the job and secured the points, but it would have been nice to have improved the goal difference column as well.

On this display, City fans will have every reason to be optimistic that their side could yet finish the campaign on top of the pile.

Should they produce performances like this against Histon and King's Lynn, who they meet twice, and leaders Tonbridge Angels who have yet to visit Old Sarum, then expect some fireworks as the season draws to a close.