Team of the Month curse strikes as United are left empty-handed from trip to Welwyn

With the January/February award being made to Cristian Colas’ side, they succumbed to a 10th minute goal from Carl Mensah and recorded their first defeat in eight games at Welwyn Garden City.

Early pressure from the home side saw United struggle to get themselves in to the game and, when Mensah found himself unmarked in the six yard are,a he made easy work of heading home past Tom Wyant.

United’s play was disjointed, made worse by several niggling tackles that broke up the flow of the play, and they had to wait until the 25th minute when Stuart Richardson’s run on goal was brought to an abrupt end by a last ditch tackle from Jay Walsh on the edge of the Citizens’ penalty area.

The first caution of the night followed for Walsh and then a superb free-kick from United’s Nick Elliott flew inches over the crossbar.

The second half was a drab affair that had little in the way of quality.

The Citizens’ long ball approach negated anything United tried to do to play their usual fast paced football and even the introduction of the nimble footed Mohammed Hashem didn’t seem to have the desired effect as he was constantly surrounded by the burly Welwyn midfield players.

United’s best chance to level proceedings came in the 78th minute when the lightening pace of Lucas Joyce saw him beat three defenders then square to Charlie Joy, but the ball was bundled away by home keeper Joe Croft.

That was the last the crowd saw of Joyce as he limped off with an ankle injury and, having used all of their substitutes, United were forced to play out the remaining 12 minutes with ten men.

Content with their one-goal lead the Citizens packed their back line and saw out the game.

Next up for United is a trip to Leverstock Green on Saturday afternoon.