Welton Rovers Match Preview
City and Welton Rovers try again at West Clewes on Tuesday to decide their Somerset Premier Cup quarter final tie following last week’s postponement due to wet weather.
Their opponents are currently in 3rd place in the Western League Division 1, six points behind leaders Sherborne Town.
This league also features Portishead Town who City beat in the previous round back in November.
Rovers certainly know where the goal is, having scored five and six goals twice each and even netting ten against Sidmouth in the FA Vase!
To get to this stage of the county cup they received a bye in the first round before winning 2-1 at Brislington.
City and Welton were league rivals early in the 20th Century before our reserves became regular opponents. Our paths crossed a few times in the FA Cup and there have been seven meetings in the county competition.
The most memorable for older supporters took place just two months before England’s World Cup triumph in 1966 when we met in the two-legged final in front of a couple of very large and vociferous crowds.
Mike Whitehouse and Dave Phillips secured a 2-1 win for City at Twerton before a Mike Denton equalizer at Welton secured the trophy.
We have only met on three occasions since then, the most notable being an 8-1 win at Twerton in 2018 which featured a hat-trick from Antoine Semenyo.
More forgettable was what followed a season later when a 3-1 win for City at West Clewes was chalked off due to us fielding an ineligible player.
The match was declared null and void and when it was eventually replayed three months later Welton went through on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
Although meetings between the two clubs have been infrequent, many well known names have been connected with them both.
Welton were one of the strongest clubs below Southern League level at the time of that 1966 final and their manager, Arnold Rogers, made the move to Twerton not long after, taking ten of his team with him!
Ian Henderson, Graham Withey, Adie Britton and Mark Harrington are all mentioned in this history of Welton Rovers found at its website.
City will be hoping to join Frome Town and Yeovil Town in the semi finals while the other outstanding tie at this stage, Odd Down v Wells, is also played on Tuesday.
Supporters intending to travel should note that the match kicks off at 7.30pm. West Clewes is on the edge of Midsomer Norton and the eleven mile drive from Bath will take around 25 minutes.
