Hengrove Athletic 1 Welton Rovers 5

In this last league game before lockdown, Welton remained unbeaten and top of the Toolstation Devision One table, with a high class attacking performance – even a temporary floodlight

failure couldn’t stop the advance of the Green Army. This was just the response the Green Army were looking for after Saturday’s disappointment at Bridgwater.

On a cold evening at Norton Lane, Whitchurch, it was Welton who were straight out of the blocks and pressurising their hosts and they took the lead after eleven minutes.

David Regula raced down the left flank and created himself an opening and then drove in a low shot that flew into the Hengrove net. The host’s response was immediate – a deep free kick was met in the area and an excellently-placed header crashed into the Welton net.

More attacking play from Welton saw Regula and Lewis Coleman combining well and Regula ran on and thumped his shot against the Hengrove post.

Welton were not to be denied and regained the lead in the 27th minute. A Welton corner was delivered long and was met by Jacob Watson, who headed it back into the box where Joe Ellis was on hand to steer his header into the net.

Just before the half-time whistle another moment of magic from Regula saw him meet a short corner from Scott Hatcher – he ran to the tough line, slipped his marker and shot from an acute angle into the roof of the net.

The second half saw Welton dominate proceedings and saw them going all out for more goals. On the 60th minute a free kick from Hatcher out on the left was met by Courtney Charles, who rose above the Hengrove defence to guide the ball into the bottom left corner of the net to make it four for Welton.

The hosts were not giving up and the play was still going from end to end. With twelve minutes remaining, the ground was suddenly plunged into complete darkness after a total floodlight failure with Welton to be denied a comfortable three points.

The Hengrove ground staff worked hard on the problem and thankfully, after a delay of about half an hour, the lights came back on and the game resumed.

There was still time for Welton to score again, an obvious handball in the penalty area was spotted by the referee and up stepped Regula to slot the ball home from the spot to secure his second hat trick of the season and round off a top drawer Man of the Match performance.

Bob Allard