After last Saturday's defeat at home to Stafford, a furious Jimmy Quinn posed his players the question "Have we got the character to bounce back?" Today they showed they have, with a professional performance and deserved win at Salisbury City.

The home side were reduced to ten men after just 14 minutes when midfielder Michael Fowler lived up to his name with a two-footed challenge on Rob Wolleaston. Referee David Phillips immediately reached for his red card and United scored two well-taken goals before half-time to make up for the chance Mark Albrighton missed when he scooped the ball over the bar inside the first minute.

Jack Jeffery, with his first U's goal, and Mark Beesley were the men on target while Danny Potter had little to do at the other end, and afterwards Jimmy Quinn felt his team would have won whether the home side had ten or eleven men on the pitch.

"You could say we had a bit of help when they had one of their men sent off, but it was a tackle from behind and the referee saw it, and the Salisbury fans were trying their best to get the referee to even it up.

"I thought it was a professional performance," added Quinn. "I told the lads to go out and compete but they mustn't get involved with the ref at all.

"I thought Mark Albrighton was outstanding - his head seemed to be a magnet for the ball - and to be fair we could have scored another two or three goals but their keeper pulled off a couple of fine saves, and apart from one long-range shot I thought we defended very well."

On the sending-off decision, Quinn commented, "From where I was sitting it didn't look like that much to me, but it was a tackle from behind and referees have got their directives so the lad was sent off. I thought we were in the ascendancy anyway; we started the game well and we were forcing free kicks and corners and we had a couple of early shots, and whether they had ten men or eleven I think we would have nicked it today.

"We were professional. It's always difficult when a team goes down to ten but I told the lads at half-time that we were looking for an extra ten per cent to make sure we didn't let Salisbury get a foothold in the game, and it was a good performance - I was delighted and it's good to put in a performance after last week."

Jack Jeffery opened the scoring with a neat turn and finish on the half hour and ten minutes later Mark Beesley nodded home his fifth goal since joining from Forest Green Rovers in January, and Quinn was delighted to see both strikers on the score sheet.

"I told Jack before the game I had a feeling he was going to score today," revealed the U's boss, "and I'm delighted for him. He's worked very hard since he's been here and that will do his confidence the world of good.

"I'm pleased with the two of them - Mark Beesley worked hard and he was unlucky. He could have got two or three today and I think he's scored four goals in five games now so that'll do his confidence good as well, and apart from one long-range shot Danny (Potter) didn't have much to do at the back because of how well we played in front of that."

There are now only two games left, starting with Tuesday's match at home to second-placed Torquay United (7.45pm), and with United needing one win from those two games to secure a play-off place Quinn would love to do that on Tuesday.

"It's a massive game, we'll have a big crowd there and it's a great atmosphere at the Abbey when the fans are there and all behind the team, so what better way to qualify for the play-offs than by beating Torquay who might be in them?

"We need to try to do that to take that confidence into the play-offs, so it's a big game set up for us and let's get out there and express ourselves. I saw Torquay last week and they're a decent team but I didn't see anything to suggest that we can't get a result against them.

"If our lads put in the effort they did today and we take one or two of the chances that may come along then I would expect a good result. It would be great to finish it and get into the play-offs by beating one of the fancied teams."

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