TRIALLISTS hoping to land a contract with Salisbury City for the coming season are running out of time in which to impress their claims on manager Nick Holmes.

The City boss admits he has been encouraged by the performances of Simon Browne, Ian Richardson, Rene Regis and Chris Knowles in recent friendlies, but knows there are only so many places up for grabs as he fine tunes a side capable of pushing for promotion from the Southern League Premier Division.

"Ideally I'd like to have a first team squad of 22 players," said Holmes.

"But financially, it's probably only viable for a club the size of us to have 20 on board.

"I know there's going to be some disappointments," ad-mitted the City boss. "Making the decision who stays and who goes is the hardest part of my job but it has to be done."

Holmes is likely to make his mind up after Saturday's friendly encounter at Eastleigh.

"I'll leave the decision as late as I can," he added. "I said I needed to see them in games and they've done well."

It has been a typically busy pre-season week for the club since Wednesday's visit of Southampton Reserves.

Friendlies and training sessions have arrived thick and fast but Holmes is delighted by his players' response.

"I've been more than pleased with our fitness."

Reflecting on the visit of his former club, he said: "The Saints lads were very comfortable on the ball so if you gave the ball away cheaply, sometimes it was a while before you saw it again. But I thought we handled ourselves well.

"There were a few players against Saints who played 90 minutes for the first time and apart from Steve Strong suffering blurred vision after his clash of heads, everyone came out of the game okay."

Strong was ordered to rest for 48 hours but was back in action at the weekend, scoring in City's 2-0 win at Poole Town.

Matt Tubbs netted the other goal for Whites against the Wessex Division One newcomers managed by City's former assistant boss Tommy Killick and featuring other ex-Old Sarum favourites Steve Rich-ardson and Leigh Phillips.

On the same afternoon, Robbie Matthews scored twice with Rene Regis and Adam Heath grabbing the others in a comfortable 4-1 victory at AFC Newbury.

Holmes, who was on a spying mission elsewhere in preparation for the start of the campaign, said: "I know it's Wessex League opposition but they all needed to get 90 minutes under their belts on a regular basis."

Holmes discovered more about his squad's strengths in Tuesday night's 0-1 reverse against Farnborough Town.

"I learned a little bit more about the lads we're looking at. They all worked very hard against a strong Farnborough side.

"One of the pleasing things was for all their possession in the first 45 minutes we didn't let them create a clear chance.

"All that running around chasing the ball could have killed us.

"But because we kept our shape and worked in groups, together we got through it."

The introduction of new signing Paul Sales at half time alongside a number of first team regulars transformed the contest and a resurgent City took the game to the Conference South side and were ultimately unlucky to concede a 68th minute goal.

"That certainly made things interesting," mused Holmes on Sales' first appearance in a City shirt this summer.

Following Salisbury's visit to Eastleigh on Saturday (2pm), Whites make the short trip across the city to Bemerton Heath Harlequins on Tuesday for their final warm-up match.

City's league game at home to Yate Town has been brought forward to Friday, September 2 (7.45pm) to avoid clashing with England's televised World Cup qualifier with Wales the following afternoon.