Welton’s interest in this year’s Vase competition came to an early end at West Clewes when they were comfortably beaten by their visitors from North Somerset.
On an ideal weather day for football, it was the visitors who showed first, with an effort from Aden Harvey which was saved by Welton keeper, Tom Drewitt. Welton’s response was a long-range effort from Tom Smith that was gathered at the second attempt by Lewis Coombes in the visitors’ goal.
The game settled down and although both teams probed each other’s defences, clear cut chances were very limited. Drewitt saved well from the lively Ryan Radford, who looked like he could be the player who would make a difference. Chris Pile managed to break through the Ashton defence only to shoot off target, and as half-time approached, a shot on the turn from Aaron Seviour flew over the bar. As the half-time whistle blew, the stalemate couldn’t be broken by either side.
The visitors looked the more lively out of the blocks at the start of the second half and a curling shot from Radford went over the Welton bar. As Ashton and Backwell pressed, Welton had Captain, Joe Garland, to thank when he denied the visitors with a last gasp tackle and a superb, one-handed save from Drewitt denied Ashton an opening goal.
Welton were being pegged back in their own area and it came as no surprise when the visitors opened the scoring in the 65th minute. Good work by Radford saw him torment the Welton defence before he found substitute, Jason Radnedge, in space and he drilled his shot into the roof of the net. Five minutes later, the visitors got a second when the ball fell to Radford and he delicately lobbed the ball over Drewitt and into the net.
Just before full-time Ashton and Backwell booked their place in the next round when Radford bundled the ball into the Welton net from close range to score his second and the visitors’ third.
Bob Allard