Welton Sports AFC narrowly missed out on a place in the Ron Eaglen final after losing 3-2 to Fox and Hounds in what was a pulsating game.
With tom bowey missing and others injured, the size and strength of Welton's squad was tested again. Fortunately we were still able to field a strong line up as follows: Mayhem, Danny, Dave and Matt ward making up the back three, connor, alex, andy, lee and ross forming the midfield 5 with ronnie and jason up top. This left Joel, steve and phil on the bench.
It was a full house on a scorching morning down at the birchwood for the eagerly awaited semi final between two of this seasons top teams.
The opening minutes were a cagey affair with both teams seemingly a little nervous of what was at stake. The first goal fell to the home side after what appeared to be an obvious offside was missed by the rotund linesman, allowing the fox & hound centre forward to tap in from six yards. The injustice seem to energise Welton and within ten minutes they were back on level terms after a lob from jason left the keeper for dead.
Welton's tails were now up and started to try and play some football on what proved to be a very bouncy unpredictable surface. The game was end to end stuff until just on the stroke of half time a goal mouth scramble fell kindly for ronnie to fire in from a yard out and send welton 2-1 infront.
A rowsing teamtalk at half time left the lads feeling confident they could go on and get the vital third goal. However after another dubious offside decision was allowed to continue and the fox & hound striker helped himself to the equaliser. This clearly lifted their spirits and they began to throw everything at welton. Although it must be said 90% of this was long ball which brought the standard of football down a peg or two.
The third goal came again under a cloud of a wrong decision, the linesman flagged for a high challenge against ronnie and was ignored by the ref, as fox attacked another blatant foul on right back matt ward was also ignored leaving the welton fans amazed. The attack continue to a goal mouth scramble where the ball popped back out to the fox striker and to give him credit he finished very well with an overhead kick.
With around twenty minutes to go this left welton with an uphill battle. Fox now had everyone back defending their lead and welton found it very difficult to break them down. On came joel to replace andy wilks to try and offer that killer pass, but fox were defending for their lives and the long clearances were causing welton a problem as they threw everyone forward for the equalizer. The last change of the day saw phil replace dave who had not quite been at his usual level this week, this meant the impressive matt ward was pushed up to right midfield.
Unfortunately the clock was now against welton and that clear cut opportunity never really arose. The final whistle sounded to end Welton's hope of a final place in the Ron Eaglen. The lads were obviously frustrated and disappointed, but after the dust settles they should be proud of the exploits in reaching a semi-final at the first time of asking is a great achievement.
Welton now return to league action with a welcome home game against Dynamo Varsity this sunday 10:45am kick. They will also have an eye on next weeks revenge match vs Scothern in the Kelly Reed quarter final. Where should they progress have the more favorable tie vs Woodhall Spa or Wragby.
We would also like to thanks all the fans for turning up in their droves last sunday, it really means alot to the lads to have such a loyal fan base and we hope to deliver some silverware for you this season in some shape or form.
Club Sec