Welton made the short trip over the Mendips for their Boxing Day fixture against third place Shepton Mallet.

Shepton Mallet 3 Welton Rovers 1

A large number of the Green Army made the trip swelling the official attendance to 434, an impressive crowd. Welton more than held their own against their hosts but two moments of madness in the second half was Welton's undoing.

Welton took the game to their hosts early on and a corner on the right from Lewis Russell found Ben Wych in space, he curled his pass over to the far post and after an almighty scramble the ball was eventually cleared. Further pressure from Welton saw Jaiden Savery’s effort whistle past the Mallet post. At the other end, Welton keeper Chris Blammon saved well to deny Fin Wilkinson. Shepton were awarded a free-kick twenty-yards out, Wilkinson’s delivery was tipped over by Blammon and a mistake at the back allowed in striker Danny Constable and his shot flew inches wide of Welton's post. However, Welton continued to press and were rewarded in the 26th minute when excellent midfield play by Lewis Hunt saw him thread the ball through to Toby Cole who raced goalwards, rounded Shepton keeper Tom Easterbrook to calmly slot the ball into the far corner of the net to score a very good goal.

Shepton started pressing Welton for the equaliser and a cracking effort from Nathan Legge rattled the Welton upright. On the stroke of half-time Shepton won a corner on the left, the delivery was met by Fin Haines who rose above the Welton defence to head home the equaliser for the hosts. That was the last play of the half.

The second half began with Welton really taking the game to their hosts, creating chance after chance. Billy Manning saw his goal bound shot saved low down at full stretch by Easterbrook, Russell then saw his effort flash past the post. A free-kick out wide from Wych was met by Joe Ellis and his power header had goal written all over it till Easterbrook somehow palmed the ball away as Welton really had Shepton under the cosh. Cole was put through on goal but at the vital moment he sliced his shot wide of the target.

Welton's world fell apart in the sixty second minute when Wilkinson was to the left of the goal when Blammon came out to close him down and tripped him and the referee had no hesitation in awarding a penalty. Upstepped Jacob Sloggett who made no mistake with his spot kick.

After the restart, Welton lost possession and the ball fell to Sloggett out on the left and he was taken out by a strong challenge from Savery who was immediately shown the red card by the referee reducing Welton to ten men. These two incidents knocked the stuffing out of Welton and despite Welton manager Tom Smith ringing the changes by using all the substitutes, Welton couldn’t get their momentum back. As the game went into added time the hosts got their third when Josh Jenkins finished off an attacking move in style.

Bob Allard