Our last First Team home game before Xmas was celebrated in style with a sumptuous turkey feast provided pre match by Claire and Graham with an appearance from Father Christmas himself followed by a clinical performance by the players against AFC Welwyn who we were playing for the first time.

Our guests were only formed in 2023 after a rebranding from Welwyn Graden City Development Team and began life in impressive style winning back-to-back promotions to book their place in the Premier Division. They have had a peripatetic life so far being based firstly at Welwyn Garden City, then at Potters Bar Town and now at Hemel Hempstead’s ground but they have ambitions to develop their own ground.

They had a terrific start to life in the Premier Division suffering just 2 defeats in their first 13 games but their recent form has been poor with just one victory from their last 9 games. Only 4 players on their Team Sheet for this game appeared in the opening game of the season so clearly they have had a lot of changes to their squad.

The pitch was amazingly playable but wet but the conditions made it difficult for the players so it was unsurprising that there was a scrappy start to the game but then we came to life in the 20th and 21st minute to take a firm grip of the match.

Dylan Whitelock will be rightly credited for an assist for the first goal after getting away down our right and then accurately picking out an unmarked Pablo Kalamaris in the middle who steered his shot home but credit must also go to Skipper Jack Harvey who pressurized 2 defenders into coughing up possession of the ball that fell to Dylan. Score 1-0.

We only had to wait a minute for us to double our lead when a lovely lay off by Dylan Whitelock found Mason Clarke who’s cross to the far post picked out Max Hercules who’s shot was saved but not held by Ashton Broome Alexander and Pablo was on hand to score his second of the game. The 17-year-old has now scored 3 goals for Athletic and hopefully there will be plenty more to follow. Score 2-0.

Our opponents played some decent football but without troubling our defence but they had a half chance in the 25th minute when Tonye Joseph was picked out in space to the left of our goal but his shot went well wide of the post.

Pablo set up Mason Clarke after a great run down the right wing but Mase fired his shot into the side netting. We added a third goal in the 38th minute from a well worked free kick involving Max Hercules and Greg Deer who reprised the goal he set up for Frankie Hercules on Tuesday night against Buckingham F C, Picking up a clever free kick from Max he burst past the defender then crossed it into the visitor’s area and although the keeper saved the first effort from Pablo thus denying him a hat-trick he could not prevent Dave O’Connor from grabbing his first goal of the season to us a healthy lead at half time. HT Score 3-0.

The second half was bit of a non-event with our guests unable to test young Freddie Burroughs in goal and we took the opportunity to make 5 substitutions to give our strong squad some game time.

The highlight of the game came in the 74th minute when Dave O’Connor, who has played over 200 games for the club, scored a goal of some quality. Again it stemmed from another clever free kick from Max Hercules who sent away down the right Dylan Fitzpatrick whose cross was not cleared by the visitor’s defence with the ball falling to DOC who with his back to the goal controlled the ball with his right foot and then scored with an overhead kick from his left boot. It was a moment of sheer quality from the big man who has made a very big difference since he returned to the team after missing a big chunk of games at the beginning of the season. Score 4-0.

Later Josh Chamberlain tried to emulate DOC’s goal but his overhead kick went over and then he hammered a shot with his lethal left foot and although it went wide it bought some gasps from the crowd. DOC, who looked hell bent on scoring his hat-trick, tried an outrageous shot from way out which the keeper tipped over although he was gracious enough to say it was going wide.

Welwyn’s kept plugging away to get at least a consolation goal and they had a chance 3 minutes from normal time when substitute Paul Chukwuma picked up a cross but his well struck shot went wide of the far post.

This was a terrific win and although Welwyn are going through a difficult time there are no easy games at this level. We have now won 4 League games on the trot and most pleasingly we have kept 4 clean sheets. We have now moved up to 8th in the table just 2 points behind Arlesey Town who occupy 5th and last place in the play-off places having played the same number of games as us, namely 20.

Back on the 1st November when we lost our last League match 2-1 at Haringey Borough we were 11th in the table and 10 points off the last play off place having played a game more so we are slowly climbing up the table but we need to keep this good run of results going if we want to challenge for promotion.

Having played a lot of midweek games recently we do have a much needed break in the week ahead but we face a tough encounter on Saturday when we visit Kings Langley who are 2nd in the table. They surprisingly lost 3-0 at Wormley Rovers on Saturday so they will be keen to get back to winning ways again and with the added incentive of it being a local derby it will be a tough game so come along and give the players a lot of support.

TEAM,
TA: Freddie Burroughs, James Kimber, David O’Connor, Greg Deer, Mason Clarke, Pablo Kalamaras (Lincoln Gilmartin 79), Blake Argent (Josh Chamberlain 76), Jack Harvey (Capt), Luke Peerless (Dylan Fitzpatrick 63), Max Hercules (Bailey Osborne 77), Dylan Whitelock (Harry Jones 68).

Scorers

TA: Pablo Kalamaras (20, 21), Dave O’Connor (38, 74)

Crowd: 144