Welton marched into the quarter finals of the County Cup with an emphatic 7-2 win against Deportivo Empire. Despite falling behind early on Welton stormed back with goals from Leigh Warman, Sam Allmond, 2 for Jason Tinkler and a Scott Coupland hat trick ensuring that The Socialites are in the hat with some of the biggest teams in Lincolnshire.
Weltons management team were forced to make a couple of changes with Joe Snookes absence meaning Ross Taylor made his first start of the season at left back and Jamie Chesman moved to centre back. Injuries to Craig Cosgrove and Billy Munro lead to Jason Tinkler starting up front, Matt O Halloran and Scott Coupland were rstored to the starting line up having been rested against North Scarle.
The Game could not have started worse for Welton as Deportivo found the back of Phil McGanns net with the first attack of the game, Welton had numerous chances to clear the ball but a speculative strike from outside the box deflected kindly to the Deportivo number 10 who finished well from 12 yards out despite appearing to be in an offside position.
Going a goal down without having the ball in your opponents half was obviously far from ideal but Welton’s response was impressive as they instantly set about gaining parity on the scoreline.
Welton created a string of chances but were denied by the Deportivo keeper and were left frustrated on numerous occasions by the Deportivo linesman.
That frustration didn’t last long though and in the 15th minute Social Park breathed a sigh of relief as Scott Coupland sprung the offside trap and finished clinically past the keeper from the left hand side of the area curling the ball low across the goal.
Like the streets of uphill Lincoln this past weekend it was one way traffic now and Welton looked like they could score at any time, The only surprise was that it was Leigh Warman who made the breakthrough.
Having waited so long to score his first goal in a long time last Week, Warman made it two in two after Matt O Hallorans corner was only partially cleared to the edge of the area where Warman was waiting to drill the ball low through the crowded penalty area past the keeper to give the Socialites the lead for the first time.
With just 30 seconds remaining until half time The Socialites gave themselves some breathing space with a superbly worked goal. Welton had kept possession well down the right and a brilliant through ball by Matt O Halloran played in Sam Allmond who pulled the ball across goal to the back post to Scott Coupland who hammered the ball into the roof of the net from a couple of yards out.
Deportivo barely had time to take the kick off and the sides went in at half time with the score at 3-1
HALF TIME: Welton S&SC 3-1 Deportivo Empire
Welton emerged unchanged for the second half with Phil McGann ominously predicting that he could see himself letting in a howler and sure enough that prediction came true.
Deportivo were clearly fired up by their Managers half time team talk and came out all guns blazeing looking for a way back into the game. The Deportivo right winger poked a fairly tame effort goalwards through the crowded area with the outside of his right foot, McGann looked to have it covered but the ball squirmed underneath him and Deportivo had a lifeline.
Much like the first half though Welton responded brilliantly to conceding and went straight back on to the attack and restored their two goal lead.
Jamie Chesman swung over a left footed cross from the left hand side to the back post to Jason Tinkler who finished superbly with his right foot hitting the ball back across the keeper with a first time shot.
Welton never looked back from that point and their passage to the quarter finals was effectively sealed when Scott Coupland claimed his hat trick and the match ball. A cleverly worked short corner between Matt O Halloran and Sam Allmond lead to the latter whipping in a great cross for Coupland to flick on and into the net from ten yards out.
Welton made a couple of changes at this point with the returning Jack McGovern replacing Leigh Warman who had picked up a knock in the first half and Olly Furness coming on in place of Luke Clifford.
Their were a few ugly moments creeping into the game and handbags were prominent in a mad five minutes that saw 4 players receive yellow cards, Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and normal service was resumed as Welton hit their opponents for six.
Having spent the vast majority of the second half camped in the Deportivo half marauding full back Will Carters golden opportunity finally fell his way when he was played through by Matt O Halloran, Carter duly spurned the opportunity striking meakly straight at the Deportivo keeper, Fortunatley for Welton Sam Allmond was on hand to sweep home the rebound and notch up his sixth goal in 4 games.
Jason Tinkler put the icing on the cake with Weltons seventh. Olly Furness played the ball through the Deportivo defence and three Welton players were being played on by the left back giving Jason Tinkler all the time in the World to ruthlessly smash the ball into the top corner.
FINAL SCORE: Welton S&SC 7-2 Deportivo Empire