After a few weeks off and a bye to the quarter finals of the Countryside Insurance Services league cup (away to Glenfield Town Reserves on 5th March) the Welford Saturday Adults team found itself playing away to Rogue Elite, a very welcoming club which is dominating the league this season, sitting at the top of the table with 34 points having won all but one of its games (beating most teams by 8+ goals).
With a few new faces, especially new keeper Mason who has been itching to play for weeks, Welford started well against the league’s stand-out team. In an open game, both sides were unlucky not to score a few goals but a combination of great finishing and poor fortune – including a penalty that Welford disputed strongly – saw the hosts finish the half three goals to the good.
A mere glance at the league table meant that a defeat was inevitable, but in the second half the same issues that have plagued the Welford Saturday Adults of late undermined their hopes of keeping the scoreline respectable. The lack of numbers available, combined with the stop-start nature of the season, meant they again lost a key player to a lack of fitness at the interval. The impact of this on the team’s cohesion meant it wasn’t long until Rogue Elite began to dominate and score more goals and the subsequent loss of both captain and goalkeeper to injury meant a disjointed end to the game and another double-digit defeat.
Welford were not without the occasional threat, and on one occasion had the ball over the line only for the effort to be disallowed by a referee and linesman who were both denied a clear view of the incident. The opposing goalkeeper’s admission, after the game, that the ball was in was – unfortunately – not enough to grant Welford the consolation goal their efforts probably deserved, but there’s no question marks whatsoever over either the result or the quality of the opposition.
Rogue Elite
10 – 0
Welford Victoria Saturday Adults
| 12th February 2022 | Langdale Park | Leicestershire County Football League |
