Tom Smith’s Welton Rovers side made history on Saturday afternoon at West Clewes by beating Hengrove and winning all first five league games at the start of a season, the best ever start since the Club was founded in 1887.

On a warm sunny afternoon and in front of another bumper crowd it was the visitors who looked lively early on with Welton’s defence being tested.

Courtney Charles won a ball in midfield, raced goalwards before being promptly up-ended and Welton were awarded a free-kick. Chris Pile’s delivery was met by Joe Garland, who was making his first start having recovered from injury, and his header whistled past the Hengrove post. Although Hengrove looked lively, they rarely troubled Matt Dunk in the Welton goal.

Charles was back in the action and his pass found Jake Slocombe in space, but his effort was cleared. Hengrove keeper, Carl Bush, then produced two outstanding saves in the space of a minute to deny Charles and Pile. Welton moved up a gear and the visitors were under pressure.

Another corner for Welton was again met by Garland who found Keelen Mastouras and his first time shot flew wide of the target. A succession of corners for Welton saw Pile deliver near perfect crosses into the mix and as the defenders struggled to clear, the ball fell eventually to Jacob Watson but his shot flew over the bar. Charles then headed wide as the number of chances being created by Welton approached double figures. Lewis Coleman then had a go and his cracking shot flew inches over. Bush then stood big and denied Charles on a one-to-one situation.

Garland met another Pile corner and this time his goal-bound header was saved by Bush at full stretch. It looked like being one of those afternoons, but right on the stroke of half-time, the breakthrough that Welton thoroughly deserved arrived.

Yet another corner on the right from Pile was met by Garland and this time his bullet header flew into the bottom corner of the net, much to the relief of the Green Army.

The start of the second half saw further good work from Charles, he robbed his marker and sent the ball over to Slocombe, but he lent back and fired over.

Charles had picked up a knock and was replaced by Jake Bird.

It was all Welton as they went for the second, Pile saw his goal-bound shot cleared by a defender’s trailing leg with Bush beaten. On a rare attack from the visitors they were awarded a free kick twenty yards out; Pete Shepard’s strike clipped the top of the Welton bar before going over.

This galvanised Hengrove to go for the equaliser and Welton had to draw on their inner strength to deal with the pressure. Welton weathered the storm and found a second wind as they took the game back to Hengrove. Bird was then denied by a crunching tackle and Slocombe launched a stunning kick that curled over the wall and had goal written all over it before Bush flew across to tip the ball over. With twelve minutes to go, Jackson Brown was sin binned for words with the referee and in the final moments of the game Bush was at his best again to deny Slocombe.

In the end Welton ran out worthy winners and created their own bit of history, much to the delight of the masses of Green Army

supporters. Bob Allard