Welton Rovers 1 Plymouth Parkway 0

Welton progressed to the third round of the FA Vase with a hard fought victory over their visitors from South Devon.

The game got underway on a bitterly cold afternoon at West Clewes with Welton fielding two new signings, Sam Lewis in goal and Charlie Maddison as an attacking midfielder.

In a lively opening period, Welton saw Anthony Conradi and Chris Pile combining well to cause the Parkway defence concerns. A cross from Maddison from deep out on the right was met by Conradi, but his header went wide. The visitors then upped the pace, putting pressure on the Welton defence and they got the ball into the Welton net, only for it to be ruled out, as the ball had gone out of play.

Welton Captain, Steve Bridges, then set up Conradi at the other end, but he fired straight at Martin Piper in the Parkway goal. Minutes later, Welton keeper, Lewis, made three outstanding point blank saves,within the space of a minute, to deny Michael Smith.

The game was going from end to end and further good play from Bridges saw him set up Maddison, but his cracking first time effort was palmed away by the keeper. Just before half-time, the visitors were reduced to ten men when full back, Paul Heveran, was shown a straight red by referee, Knapp, for retaliation.

The second half started and a long range effort from Levi Landricombe went close for the visitors and at the other end, a shot from Pile went agonisingly wide of the Parkway far post.

Both sides were going all out for the first goal and efforts from Conradi and Pile went close for Welton and a firm strike from Landricombe for Parkway was well saved by Lewis.

The deadlock was broken just before the seventieth minute when Welton full back, Jamie Gregory, produced a piece of outstanding play when his last-ditch tackle thwarted a Parkway counter-attack on the Welton goal. He reclaimed the ball and delivered a pin point pass to Conradi, who in turn, found

Maddison, who made no mistake as he drilled his shot past Piper into the far corner of the net to score on his debut and give Welton the lead.

The visitors responded to this setback and Lewis did well to deny Steve Colwell and on the stroke of full-time, Landricombe scuffed his shot in front of the Welton goal.

In the end, Welton saw the game out and progressed to the third round, much to the delight of the Green Army.