Welwyn Garden City men made it back-to-back victories with a 3-2 home win against Bishop's Stortford Thirds.

Both sides pushed forward in search of the breakthrough in the early stages, but the Welwyn defence of Peter Mullens, Rob Sansom, Stuart Stephen and James Fowler held firm against their opponents’ attacks.

The home side struck first when Mullens tackled a Stortford attacker and launched a quick counter-attack, allowing Dave Allmand-Smith to fire a shot into the bottom corner.

After conceding, Stortford started applying more pressure, with Welwyn keeper Dan Klinger getting a low hand to deny a short corner.

But Welwyn were pegged back when the visitors struck after a well-worked move.

The game remained level until another Mullens long ball cut open the Stortford defence, allowing Nate Last to dribble around the keeper before beating a defender to make it 2-1 at the break.

Stortford came out strong in the second half and levelled for a second time through a short corner.

Late in the second half though, Callum Burr and Nate McIntyre teamed up on the right-hand side of the pitch, with McIntyre picking up the ball in the final third, skilfully dribbling past several Stortford defenders before beating the keeper and having his shot pushed into the Stortford goal by Dan Hatt.

A slow start to the ladies’ game against Bishops Stortford Fourths gave no indication of the drama that was to unfold with head injuries, asthma attacks and allergic reactions.

As soon as Welwyn started transferring the ball across the pitch and got into the rhythm of their one-two passing up the line, the home side started to take off.

Halfway through the first half, Welwyn capitalised on their possession play, with youngster Connie Dykes following up her first-team debut the previous week with her first goal.

Dykes did well to hold onto the ball in the D and out-wit opponents, leading to a one-on-one with the keeper who dived, leaving an open goal to score into.

Welwyn’s determination to battle harder for the 50/50 balls paid off in the second half when Stortford stormed back to try to get the equaliser.

The home side thought they had scored a second when Nina Taylor deflected in a Dykes shot but a teammate caught the keeper’s stick in the midst of this and it was disallowed for a foul.

Stortford did manage to equalise but Welwyn’s more aggressive approach ensured they held onto a 1-1 draw for the second week running.

Keeper and player of the match Nat Granger made some fine saves to keep Stortford at bay, despite taking a stick to the head in one of the one-on-one attacks.