On a blustery, wet afternoon at West Clewes it was Welton who had the strong wind behind them in the first half. The Chard defenders and keeper were finding it difficult to clear their lines in the face of the oncoming gale. However, the visitors were awarded a free kick on the edge of the Welton area and a strike from full back, Pat Golden, saw his effort strike the inside of the Welton post, fly across the goal and was eventually cleared.
Welton tried to press, but far too many balls were being taken by the wind. A corner from the right by Chris Pile caused a melee in the Chard box and Shakel Green’s poke was cleared off the line by a Chard boot. The ball fell back to Pile and his shot struck the visitors’ bar.
Further Welton pressure saw a header from Tom Smith go wide of the goal. Chard’s response was a great run down the right from James Boyland, his pin point cross found Tagik Ben-Salem free in front of goal, but he miss-hit his shot to let Welton off the hook. Joe Garland then took advantage of a loose ball, which he picked up on the right, drove into the Chard area and instead of shooting, set up Green, whose shot was easily cleared by the Chard defence. As half-time approached, a cracking 25-yard thunderbolt from Aaron Cockerill went close.
The second half saw Welton take the game to Chard. Garland saw his shot go wide of the target, then good play from Aaron Seviour saw him set up Pile on the edge of the area and his strike was well saved by John Hill in the Chard goal.
Hill was called into action minutes later when he denied Garland, as Welton pressed for the all important opening goal. Pile’s goal bound shot grazed the visitors’ bar.
Cockerill then launched two free kicks within minutes of each other from just outside the area and Hill had to be on top form to keep the ball out. As the game was well into added time, Welton keeper, Charlie Phillips, who had been a virtual spectator for a lot of the second half, was called into action and produced a quality save to deny Shaun Well-Burr. In the end, Welton gained a valuable point, but can count themselves unlucky not to have taken all three.
Bob Allard