Welton Rovers 0-1 Street: Welton unfortunately came away from West Clewes empty handed on Tuesday evening in this entertaining competitive match which saw the visitors sneak the points with virtually the last kick of the game.
The kick off was delayed for a half an hour after one of the assistant referees was involved in a non injury accident while travelling to the ground, so a replacement had to be found. There was a large crowd in the ground as the game got underway at 8pm and Will Gould was soon in the action when he pounced on an error at the back from the visitors. He raced to the goal line, turned and with options available to him in the middle he decided to fire in a shot that was stopped by the trailing leg of Street keeper Patrick Dixon.
Welton were pressing early on and a pass from the back found Ben Gundle on a charge. The youngster turned his marker and with Dixon racing out to close him down he curled his effort towards goal only to see it swerve past the far post. The visitors responded and Harry Durrant on the left found Lewis Trussen in space and his goal bound shot was deflected away for a corner that was dealt with by the Welton defence.
Louis Gurner got into the action with a neat overhead kick that went just wide of the visitors goal. The game was going from end to end with both sets of defences under pressure. Joe Garland at the back for Welton did well to clear a Street effort off the goal line. This was followed by a class run through the Welton defence by Jake Mawford but fortunately for Welton his final effort was off target. Just before the interval Trussen broke through again but he skewed his shot wide of the target.
The second half began with the lively Trussen causing problems down the left where he delivered a cross that flashed across the Welton six yard box. A corner from Gould caused problems in the visitors defence and the ball was hastily cleared and it fell to Ben Wych and his first time shot was well saved by Dixon. At the other end Mawford picked up a loose ball raced goalwards and fired in a cracking shot that Welton keeper Frankie Phillips saved and managed to push the ball onto the post and away to deny Street the opening goal. Welton responded to this with a sweeping attack into the visitors half led by Gurner whose persistence won a corner and Goulds delivery was met by Lewis Hunt and his shot on the turn was saved at full stretch by Dixon in the Street goal.
Welton manager rung the changes bringing on Will Ford and Logan Cassidy. A quick free kick for Welton just outside of the Street area saw the ball fall to Gundle but his shot flew over the visitors bar. Phillips was then called into action again with a quality save to deny Kyle Simpson.
Both sides were going all out for the all important first goal but it looked like the game was heading for a draw until, with one minute of added time left the visitors were awarded a free kick way over on the left.
The delivery saw the ball fly deep over the area and fell to Trussen, unmarked on the right and before he could be closed down he fired in a low shot the flew into the far corner of the Welton net giving Phillips no chance and breaking Welton hearts right at the end.
Bob Allard