Teenage striker James Stokoe experienced the highs and lows of Ryman Premier football on Saturday as Eastleigh battled out their fourth straight draw, 2-2 at Chelmsford City.

Having twice fired his side into the lead, the former AFC Bournemouth trainee wasneedlessly sent off for a second cautionable offence of kicking the ball away.

Eastleigh chairman Roger Sherwood said: "I'd put that down to inexperience from James. His first booking was a dubious one. He caught their player as he tried to close him down and the Chelmsford lad made a meal of it.

"The second one was silly, though. We got a free kick given against us, he kicked the ball away, got another yellow card and that was that.

"If we'd kept 11 players on the field, we'd have managed comfortably"

Despite Stokoe's early exit, Eastleigh very nearly came home with all three points.

Frustratingly, they led 2-1 going into stoppage time, only to be pegged back when a cross by Sammy Cooper - scorer of City's first - eluded giant keeper Colin Matthews and Steve Norman hooked home the loose ball.

Stokoe had struck first blood of the afternoon, beating Chelmsford's former Havant & Waterlooville keeper Paul Nicholls with a 30-yard blast into the top corner on 39 minutes.

His strike partner Nicky Banger twice went desperately close to doubling the advantage, hitting both posts in one attack and then looping a header against the upright.

After Cooper had equalised from Ian Cousins' cross, Stokoe nudged Eastleigh in front again having been sweetly teed up by Bashley target Tyronne Bowers.

Boss Paul Doswell, already plagued by injury and illness, lost midfielder Martin Thomas to calf trouble at half-time, ruling him out of today's home match against Wealdstone.

Ex-Saint David Hughes remains doubtful after missing Saturday's game with flu.

Super-sub Leigh Phillips bagged another important late goal, on 84 minutes against Cheshunt, to give Salisbury their third consecutive 1-0 home win.

A crowd of 523 saw Cheshunt keeperRussell Ling's commanding performance restrict the lively Whites, but in the action-packed game Salisbury keeper Kevin Sawyer was also impressive.

But for Ling's efforts Salisbury would have been out of sight in a scintillating first 20 minutes.

He kept out an Adam Wallace header early on, a Matt Tubbs piledriver on 13 minutes and then, with the help of a defender, thwarted Craig Davis in a one on one.

The only goal came when Phillips sent a low cross-shot past Ling following good work by Wayne Turk and Steve Strong.

There was almost a second when Strong's header clipped the woodwork in injury time.