Leigh Phillips is hoping his first man-of-the-match champagne for Salisbury City will guarantee he keeps his place in the starting line-up for Wednesday's Dr Martens Eastern Division trip to Burgess Hill Town.

There were a few eyebrows raised when the former Lymington & New Milton hitman was named in the starting line-up ahead of Whites' leading scorer and ex-Saint Adam Wallace, but one goal and two assists in Saturday's 3-2 win over Hastings proved it an inspirational decision by manager Nick Holmes.

Phillips' 25th-minute equaliser evoked memories of the days when he used to terrorise Wessex League defences for Lymington. His former Linnets' teammate Steve Strong picked him out with an inch-perfect ball from the right and the powerful marksman met it with a typically brave diving header to cancel Carl Rook's embarrassingly easy ninth-minute opener for Hastings.

With ex-Bashley midfielder Craig Davis causing havoc with his long throws and the recalled Gary Funnell getting some great deliveries into the box, Phillips was having a field day in the air.

Two minutes before his goal he had a header clawed away by 'keeper Greg Nessling and then he shot wide amid a 34th-minute goalmouth scramble, having initially flicked on one of Davis's mighty throws.

As the game ticked towards half-time, Nessling came off worse as Phillips challenged him for Davis's testing cross from the right, but the Hastings 'keeper managed to punch the ball out from under the bar before the pair collapsed in a heap.

Nessling recovered to punch away Matt Tubbs' close-range header from Strong's cross, but he was beaten five minutes into stoppage time when Phillips got his head to another of Davis's long throws and Tubbs lashed home the lose ball.

Phillips - still bearing a deep scar on his forehead from an aerial challenge at Corby on Valentine's Day - laughed: "Craig Davis is like a gibbon. For someone so slight, he's got really long arms and a great throw on him. We got here early today to work on set-pieces and we had that one up our sleeve.

"I think it's probably the best I've played for Salisbury and, having scored and been man-of-the-match, I'd be upset if I'm not playing on Wednesday at Burgess Hill.

"I played quite a few games at the start of the season when Adam was injured and did well enough. I enjoy this level of football. It's much more of a challenge. It doesn't matter if the opposition's top or bottom, they've always got a few decent people who can play."

Salisbury took a while to regain their momentum in the second half but, when they did, Hastings again looked susceptible in the air. Defender Tim Bond, newly-recruited from AFC Bournemouth's Academy, so nearly got a touch to Funnell's fierce, far-post cross and then, from another Funnell delivery, Tubbs looped a header over.

But the quality of Hastings' attack belied their lowly place in the table and substitute Simon Stickney almost levelled with a speculative 30-yarder that clattered back off the bar.

With 88 minutes gone, Phillips was again the provider as Tubbs took advantage of Nessling's slip to slide an angled shot home from the left of the area to make it 3-1.

The game should have been done and dusted but Ryan Peters caused a few last-gasp flutters by pulling one back for Hastings in stoppage time.

Assistant manager Tommy Killick was just relieved to turn the corner on a sticky run of three defeats and one draw in Salisbury's last four games.

The victory keeps them fifth in the table as the pressure intensifies to make the top seven/eight bracket for Premier Division football next season.

Killick said: "We've played better, but we've been struggling of late and confidence has been low, so the performance was irrelevant today. The main thing was to win and push on a bit.

"Hastings' first goal was a soft one to concede and I thought the players might withdraw into themselves, but they kept plugging away and I think we deserved to win in the end.

"Leigh took his goal really well. He and Strongy know each other's games inside out and Leigh will thrive on any good ball put on his head because that's his strength."