NICK HOLMES should have flown back to America yesterday fuelled by the satisfaction of a fourth home win for Salisbury City in the Ryman Premier Division.

Instead, he endured a frustrating transatlantic journey to Florida after seeing a stack of late chances go to waste in a 0-0 home draw with struggling Dover Athletic.

Substitute Leigh Phillips alone could have plundered a hat-trick. His very first touch after replacing Sean Cook in the 69th-minute was a near-post header from Scott Bartlett's corner which was somehow blocked on the line by keeper Kevin Readings.

Then, as Salisbury laid siege to Dover towards the end of a marathon match prolonged by ten minutes of stoppage time, the combative striker put two more efforts over and planted another in the side netting.

Skipper Bartlett also went close when he powered a volley just over, but the unluckiest of all was former Basingstoke and Newport IoW midfielder Glenn Howes whose rapier-like shot on the run was miraculously turned over by Readings.

Add that to a glaring first-half miss by Sean Cook and a back header by Dover defender Nick Humphrey, which rattled his own crossbar, and you could understand why Phillips declared afterwards: "We had enough chances to win two games, let alone one!"

Holmes, who strode to the dressing room with a face like thunder, admitted: "It's the result I'm unhappy with. On another day we would probably have buried those chances. I wasn't disappointed with the commitment of the side. Everyone battled well, but a bit of quality was lacking.

"In the second half we started hitting the ball too long and straight. I would like us to have used more width."

Dover, whose raw, young side are without an away win all season, could argue that they too had their chances.

Twice they hit the woodwork - first when Lee Scott's wind-assisted corner clipped the top of the bar on the stroke of half-time and again when substitute Chris Wright's 84th-minute shot was smartly pushed onto the foot of the post by Salisbury's second-choice keeper Arron Hedges.

In the first half, dangerman Michael Smissen misdirected a free header wide and had another clawed away by Hedges.

Times are hard for Dover, who reportedly need to cough up £17,000 by the end of the month or risk going to the wall. But help could be at hand from former AC Milan and England striker Luther Blissett, who is said to be keen to spearhead the revival of a club he describes as "a sleeping giant of non-league."

Salisbury, too, are labouring at the wrong end of the table, but their problems are gradually being remedied. Despite competition from England's televised World Cup qualifier against Wales, Saturday's game attracted a healthy 417 crowd - just three days after Whites fans had travelled in their droves to cheer City to a 3-0 FA Cup replay victory at Frome.

That match marked the welcome return of former City defender Barry Blankley, who will run the team as assistant manager until Holmes returns permanently from the States in the new year. Blankley, always a tough customer on the pitch, will take the same qualities into the dressing room.

He marked his arrival at Old Sarum by exchanging words and hard stares with the Dover bench after visiting substitute Wright had rebuked him for holding onto the ball too long when it went out of play.

Holmes said: "It's frustrating that I've got to leave again, but I feel happier now that Barry's here to look after things with Mark (coach Mark Kelly). He will have complete control while I'm away and has very similar ideas to myself.

"Barry's part of the furniture here. He's very easy to get on with and I know he'll say the right things to the players."

Former Bashley and Totton boss Blankley will take his first match in charge at home to Northwood tomorrow.

He said: "There's a lot of quality in the team and the players will get better when they've got more confidence. Whether they're playing with a bit of fear at the moment, I don't know, but we need to stir up some self-belief to get the best out of them."

Blankley will need to up his own performance too. He arrived at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium ten minutes late on Saturday and revealed: "The lads greeted me to the club by fining me!"