Lowly Corsham Town gained a well earned and deserved point at West Clewes against a Welton side that were well under par compared with recent performances.

The visitors attacked Welton straight from the kick-off, and Josh Bright saw his goal-bound shot beat Welton keeper Tom Drewitt low-down, only for fullback Aaron Cockerill to clear the ball off the goal line.

Welton gradually got into the game, and a shot from deep by Tom Smith flew past the Corsham upright, and the visitors’ keeper, Chris Snoddy, then produced a point blank save to deny Francois Allen. A couple of minutes later, Snoddy was on-hand with another quality piece of keeping, to deny Welton an opening goal.

It was not all Welton, and Drewitt produced a quality one-handed save to deny the lively Bright. However, right on the stroke of half-time, Welton took the lead when a piece of magic from Allen saw him break free on the right, race goalwards, and launch a cracking shot that smashed into the far post and flew into the visitors net, giving Snoddy no chance.

It was a scrappy start to the second half from both sides, as neither side seemed capable of controlling the game. Welton rung the changes, bringing on Lewis Coleman, Malick Jammeh and Chris Pile to liven things up. A free kick from Smith was met by Joe Battrick, and his power header flashed inches wide of the visitors’ goal.

However, in the 68th minute, Corsham equalised when Bright (on a charge) was found with a long ball out of defence, and his first-time volley took a wicked deflection past Drewitt and flew into the Welton net.

With ten minutes remaining, Corsham took the lead through Bright again, as he wrong-sided the Welton defence to pounce on a through-ball, and then fired in a stunning shot that gave Drewitt absolutely no chance.

Welton picked themselves up and went for the equaliser. Led by good play by Pile on the left, he tormented his marker and then delivered a top-drawer cross that was helped on by Jammeh, and Jaiden Savery was on-hand in the mix to slot the ball home from close range, as he has done so often for Welton this season. Welton piled on the pressure in the remaining minutes for the winner, but were denied by solid defending and a goal-line clearance.

Bob Allard