MK Irish 2 Welwyn Garden City 4

MK Irish FC made a losing start in their first appearance in the Southern League Division One Central on Saturday, where they were beaten 4-2 by a strong Welwyn Garden City at Manor Fields.

Mason Spence played a square ball across to Kyle Boyce, who squandered a big early chance to hand the home side the lead, when Donnabhan Green saved his weak strike from six yards out.

Terry Shrieves’ side would make their early pressure count only a minute later, when Ryan Smith’s corner was headed across the six-yard box by Mason Spence, allowing Clinton Zawe to rise highest and find the bottom corner inside three minutes. 

It only took Welwyn Garden City seven minutes to find an equaliser when an inch-perfect pass over the defence found Lewis Taaffe, who fired a powerful volley past Tom Ladyman to make it 1-1. 

Ladyman made an expert save moments later, when the goalkeeper made himself big to deny his opponent from close range, but it was clear to see that Welwyn were starting to dominate the proceedings. 

Marc Weatherstone’s side continued to create chances with crosses when Aiden Read and Bailey Stevenson saw their headers go agonisingly wide. Still, MK Irish did well to hold on, despite the away side’s dominance. 

Welwyn finally saw their dominance pay off in the second half, where they scored three times inside six minutes to take a commanding 4-1 lead. 

Tom Ladyman made two expert saves in quick succession, but the club’s young player of the year was unlucky to palm the ball straight into the path of Steve Cawley, who couldn’t really miss from 12 yards.

Cawley would add his second goal of the game only minutes later when Lewis Taaffe worked well to create space, with his driven low cross being expertly flicked past Ladyman to make it 3-1 before Layne Eadie found himself unmarked to head in his side’s fourth goal.

Stevenson proved a real problem for the MK Irish backline, and he nearly made it five after cutting in from the left before firing a powerful strike against the post. 

Welwyn Garden City continued to dominate and hold onto possession; however, it was MK Irish who broke forward to win a corner, which was expertly crossed into the path of the unmarked JJ Meadows. The player powerfully placed his header into the top corner to make it 4-2 in the hope of staging a late comeback. 

Substitute Kelvin Osei-Addo combined very well with Mason Spence with a one-two pass into the box in the 80th minute, but his shot excruciatingly cannoned against the post under heavy pressure from Donnabhan Green in what would have closed the deficit to one. 

In the end, MK Irish struggled to keep possession and deal with the counterattacks that Welwyn Garden City employed all afternoon, and it was the dominant away team that held on to make a winning start to the season.