Welton got out of jail when they secured all three points with a last gasp winner deep into added time to break the hearts of their determined and spirited opponents.

Another large crowd turned out at West Clewes on a glorious Spring afternoon with Welton looking to maintain their position in second place in the league. But the visitors hadn’t read the script as they took the game to Welton straight from the kick-off.

Adam Willis pounced on hesitancy in the Welton defence, raced towards the goal only to see his well struck shot saved low down in the Welton goal by Alfie Kelsey. A couple of minutes later a thunderbolt of a shot from George Sinnott flew inches over the Welton bar. Welton’s response was a shot from distance from Toby Cole that went high and wide of the target. However, against the run of play, Welton took the lead on twelve minutes, Chris Pile was found in midfield, he neatly controlled the ball and then threaded his pass through to Cole on the left who raced in and calmly slotted the ball past Lydeard’s keeper, Nathan Whatley and into the net.

The visitors responded with a corner on the left which was met by Aaron Ellicot with a free header that flew over the bar. Kelsey was on hand again when he saved well from Tai Bewes’ effort. The game was going from end to end and good play from Will Gould saw him set up Pile, but his first time effort was just off the mark.

Welton were reduced to ten men on the half hour when Cameron Allen was sin binned for ten minutes for something he said to the referee, following an altercation with Jordan Hayman. This saw the visitors really press for the equaliser and the Welton bar was struck following a melee in the mix and on 38 minutes the equaliser arrived. Excellent play down the left by the lively Sinnott saw his deep cross met at the far post by Harry Scott and his pile driver of a header saw the ball fly into the Welton net, giving Kelsey no chance.

The second half began with full back Alex Wych producing a top drawer tackle to deny Willis as he raced through on goal. Ben Wych then got into the action with a goal bound shot that was cleared off the line by the visitors’ defence. Welton then gained a series of corners, but the Lydeard defence were more than capable of dealing with them. Welton had a very strong penalty shout when Jaiden Savery appeared to be tripped as he raced into the box, but referee Halli was having none of it and waved play on. Another shot from Sinnott was driven towards goal, but Savery was on hand to clear the ball away and stop a certain goal. A long range effort from Welton substitute, Lewis Russell, flew over the Lydeard bar.

As the game entered the final five minutes, the visitors appeared to be settling for a draw and stopping their hit and run raids and dropping back to protect their goal. It looked like this tactic had worked but with less than 30 seconds left of added time at the end and the referee looking at his watch one last attack down the left was launched by Savery and his perfect cross was met by Lewis Hunt who met the ball perfectly to head the ball down and into the Lydeard net to send the Green Army over the moon and secure the points.

Bob Allard