Eastbourne Borough had victory cruelly snatched from their grasp in the fourth minute of injury-time at Salisbury.

Simon Weatherstone’s spectacular 35-yard strike in the 69th minute looked to have secured Garry Wilson’s men their first away victory of the season.

But with barely 60 seconds left, home skipper Darrell Clarke’s low header beat the outstretched arm of the diving Danny Knowles and two Eastbourne points vanished into thin Wiltshire air.

In truth, Borough were fortunate to be on level terms at half-time after a torrid opening 45 minutes which earned a half-time dressing-room rollicking from boss Wilson.

He said: “I thought we were awful in the first half and Salisbury deserved to be leading at half-time. Our performance at that stage was unacceptable.

“I told the players they had to show more energy and more desire and we did turn it round in the second half when we had enough chances to kill the game off. All the things we were doing badly in the first half we did well in the second.

“We were well in control going into stoppage time but we mismanaged the situation at the death and it was disappointing to have two points snatched away from us.”

With skipper Paul Armstrong attending his brother’s wedding in Ireland, Dan Brown took over the captaincy but continued to look less than happy in the left-back slot.

Matthew Tubbs was a constant threat to the Eastbourne defence and Salisbury could have scored three times in the opening 18 minutes.

Stuart Anderson and Jamie Turley wasted heading opportunities and, when Brown made a hash of a header back to his keeper, Robert Sinclair nipped in only to lift his effort over the keeper and wide of the post.

Brown, however, did make amends minutes later with a tremendous late challenge to stop Tubbs bursting through.

But while the home team enjoyed the lion’s share of the possession, it was Borough who went closest to breaking the stalemate. A Matt Smart drive fizzed past the upright and on the stroke of half-time Ben Austin’s shot from point blank range produced a wonderful reflex save from James Bittner.

Borough certainly looked livelier in the second half and much of the improvement was down to the introduction of Nathan Crabb who replaced the out-of-sorts Dan Smith in the 51st minute.

With Crabb injecting more life on the right flank, Andy Atkin’s header was cleared off the line by Luke Prosser and Jamie Taylor’s fierce low drive was turned around a post by the diving Bittner.

Atkin needed several minutes of treatment after colliding with the keeper and it was not long before physio Ray Tuppen was back on the field with Brown flat out after a clash of heads.

The outstanding moment of the game came in the 65th minute as Weatherstone pounced on a loose ball in midfield and left the home keeper helpless with a right foot rocket into the top right hand corner of the net.

Liam Enver-Marum replaced Atkin and was soon making his presence felt, holding the ball up on the right before laying it back for Weatherstone. But this time the man on target from 35 yards scuffed his shot from 15.

Shortly after Enver-Marum saw a goal-bound shot unluckily deflected wide as Borough threatened to double their lead.

But Eastbourne hearts were broken as the game entered the final minute of stoppage time.

Salisbury launched an attack on the right and Clarke dived to head the equaliser from sub Bradley Gray’s cross.

Few would deny that Salisbury deserved a draw, but Borough players walked off the field thoroughly dejected.

They now face a tough bank holiday game against Ebbsfleet at Priory Lane with Wilson warning, “We need to recover quickly.”

Salisbury: Bittner, Clohessy, Anderson, Turley, Prosser, Sinclair (sub Gray 75), Clarke, Tubbs, Webb, Flood, Spence. Subs not used: Glover, Porter, Osman O’Hara.

Borough: Knowles, Austin, Pullan, Elphick, Brown, Smith, (sub N. Crabb 51), Weatherstone, Smart, M. Crabb, Taylor (sub Johnson 88), Atkin (sub Enver-Marum 75), Subs not used: Jordan, Baker.