Welton finally ended their jinx against AFC Hykeham with a resounding yet fairly forgettable 5-1 win. Matt O Halloran moved onto 20 goals for the season as he bagged a brace with further goals coming from Scott Coupland, Billy Munro and Craig Cosgrove extending Welton’s winning streak to 20 games.
Olly Furness came in at left back to replace Jamie Chesman and Leigh Warman was restored to the starting line up in the only changes from Wednesday nights win against CW Golden Eagle, The return of Jason Tinkler on the bench was a welcome sight for the Welton faithful.
The Socialites got out of the traps very quickly against the side who they have failed to beat on all three occasions they have played them and Welton were rewarded with a goal from their first attack of the game.
Billy Munro picked the ball up on the right hand side of the area before working himself some space and drilling the ball home with his left foot into the bottom corner to relax any pre game nerves.
Welton looked comfortable in possession and moved the ball around nicely but the killer ball proved to be elusive until midway through the half when Billy Munro picked out Scott Coupland who neatly curled home with his right foot into the top corner from the edge of the area to make it two nil to Welton.
The game had a real end of season feel to it despite being a game that Welton had to win but with Hykeham not looking like threatening at the other end Welton casually went about their business and with goal difference no longer an issue for the Socialites the first half drifted by until Matt O Halloran made it 3-0 on the stroke of half time.
A feature of Welton’s season so far has been O Halloran’s memorable set pieces and he added another one to his collection, The Hykeham keeper appeared to havee done his homework and was expecting O Halloran to go over the wall but he instead whipped the ball across the wall into the opposite corner to send Welton in with a healthy 3 goal cushion.
HALF TIME: Welton S&SC 3-0 AFC Hykeham
The second half trudged along in the same vein as the first half with Welton comfortable in possession but there were one or two signs of a bit of fatigue creeping in to Welton after their gruelling April schedule and the flood gates never really threatened to open.
Jason Tinkler replaced Sam Allmond which livened proceedings up and Matt O Halloran hit the bar with a thunderous free kick from fully 30 yards out.
Despite the comfortable nature of the game it was Hykeham who struck first goal of the second half on 67 minutes as Mr entertainment Phil Mcgann’s attempted trickery on the edge of his penalty area backfired spectacularly and with McGann eating mud on the ground the Hykeham number 9 happily tapped the ball home into the empty net to make it 3-1.
This goal never really threatened to spark a Hykeham revival though and Matt O Halloran restored parity to the second half scoreline tapping home an unselfish square ball from Scott Coupland.
Jason Tinkler had been looking threatening out on the right hand side and he provided the assist for the final goal of the game firing a low cross to the back post to Craig Cosgrove to side foot home.
Another good job done for the Socialites despite a bit of a below par performance but when a below par performance produces a 5-1 win there shouldn’t be to much cause for concern.
Welton now move onto another tricky midweek game against Jerusalem which is another must win game.
FINAL SCORE: Welton S&SC 5-1 AFC Hykeham