Shaun Jeffers scored a hat-trick within the first twelve minutes as St Albans City defeated a sorry Welling United.

Pepe Dylan was handed a debut at the heart and was given an immediate idea of the challenge that lays ahead. There was less than three minutes on the clock when the hosts opened the scoring.

A half hearted challenge in midfield allowed John Goddard to slip Jeffers through and he chipped over Murphy Mahoney and into the net.

Four minutes later, Jeffers stabbed home again after Welling’s desperate attempt to clear was to no avail then he completed his hat-trick from the spot after a challenge on Romeo Akinola was deemed as a foul and a penalty awarded.

Michael Weiss shot into the side netting then Akinola headed wide from David Noble’s clever diagonal chip before Mahoney could only push out a shot from Weiss but Welling were able to scramble it wide.

After the break, St Albans continued to press and Alex Lankshear had a shot pushed out to safety then Jeffers failed to add to his tally after Mahoney has parried the initial shot. Weiss looked certain to score but a last ditch tackle thwarted him. Tom Bender headed wide from the corner.

Finally, Welling created a half chance when Stefan Ilic drove in a low cross but it was just out of the reach of substitute Ben Allen.

Midway through the second half, St Albans went four up when Akinola scored from close range although Kristian Campbell looked to have cleared it off the line. Akinola missed another chance when chipping past the post but he completed his brace with a minute remaining when heading home from a Jeffers cross.

Steve Lovell, Welling’s manager, couldn’t conceal his annoyance after the game. He said “To concede three goals in twelve minutes is an absolute nightmare. How are you supposed to come back from that? It’s happened all of the season so far. 

“You talk about it. You work on your defensive shape that you want to do, and people putting their foot in and winning tackles. The first goal comes from one of our midfield players not winning the tackle, goes through to score. The second one was exactly the same. People not picking up.”

Lovell was particularly unhappy with the early defending. “You can’t give any side that kind of time in the box, especially a team like this.” he moaned. “We’ve got to roll our sleeves up and dig-in and we’ve got to try and dig out results from somewhere, and we will. The players on the pitch have got to tell themselves that they value the shirt.”

Once the game was over, Lovell went to speak to the away supporters saying “I’m a very honest person and I know that those supporters are and they’ve travelled a long way to watch us today. They’ve been disappointed, just as I am, to lose the game in the fashion that we did. I understand that. We will try, and I’ll keep trying, as long as I’m at this football club, as I have done at all the football clubs that I’ve been at.” 

St Albans City: Johnson, Stanley, Lankshear, Wiltshire, Mukena, Bender, Akinola, Noble (Dawson 67), Jeffers, Weiss (Sole 75), Goddard (Banton 69).

Unused substitutes: Diedhiou, Adebiyi.

Goal scorers: Jeffers (3), (7), (pen 12), Akinola (68), (89).

Yellow cards: None

Red cards: None

Welling United: Mahoney, Biler, Campbell, Durojaiye, Barnes (Hinds 69), Pepe, Stevenson, Krabbendam (Shokunbi 46), Akinyemi (Allen 55), Ilic, Brown.

Unused substitutes: Ezennolim, Richards.

Goal scorers: None

Yellow cards: Brown, Campbell

Red cards: None

Referee: Wayne Cartmel

Assistants: Andrew Ellis and Ashley Clarke

Attendance: 897

Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.