NICK Holmes is confident Salisbury's rise up the football pyramid can continue.

The ex-Saint has guided the Whites to two promotions since taking over back in the summer of 2002.

Salisbury is hardly a footballing hotbed but Holmes has been encouraged at how the city has taken to footballing success.

"Salisbury's a sleepy old city, it's probably more a rugby-related place, but we've certainly converted people - only a couple of times this year have we had a crowd below 1,000," he remarked.

"There are people that like to be associated with success and part of winning formulas.

"And while we know there is a limit to the size of crowds we can get, we can win a few more that way.

"There might be a limit to how far we can go, but we're not there yet."

Whatever happens on tomorrow, Holmes remains determined to take Salisbury into the Football League - and become only the second Wiltshire club to ever play in the top four divisions after Swindon.

Currently third in Nationwide Conference South with games in hand, two more promotions would put Salisbury in League Two.

Holmes has already drawn encouragement from the progress of Yeovil, who are going well in League One after winning the Nationwide Conference in 2003.

"The Football League is probably a few years away, it gets tougher and tougher to go up," he said.

"But enough smaller clubs have got there and, although Yeovil have always had a bigger support base, it is a similar-sized place in the west country."

More Salisbury v Forest FA Cup previews in today's Daily Echo and this weekend's Pink