Defensive errors proved costly as Welling United slumped to a disappointing defeat at home to Oxford City.

However, the defence might not have been put into that position had they made the most of their early possession and territorial dominance. Welling manager Jamie Coyle confirmed “If you have all that pressure and you’re playing good football you need to turn it into opportunities and chances at goal and we didn’t.

“I don’t think that we really looked like scoring a goal today. We didn’t test their keeper at all in the first half, even from range. We didn’t really look like we were going to score and that’s the frustrating thing. They played a 3-5-2 and they were very congested in the middle of the park.”

He said that the Oxford system was what he had expected. “It was about trying to get the ball out wide and have quality from wide areas. That was the message on Thursday. We watched their game against Havant. They set up exactly the same as they did against Havant. When we got it out wide, the cross wasn’t good enough or the movement in the box wasn’t quite there and it was just a bad day today, a real bad day in the office.”

Although, in the wrong half of the table, Oxford were never going to be taken lightly as Coyle explained “They’re on a great run. They’ve beaten Chelmsford, Truro and Hemel and they were unlucky against Havant. They’re a team who are in good form, like ourselves.

“Their quality in the final third was better than ours and I thought that they won the midfield battle in the second half. They dominated a lot of areas on the pitch that recently hasn’t been the case and it’s been us who have been on top. It’s really really disappointing and difficult to take today but the best thing is that we’ve got a game on Tuesday to put it right.”

At half time, centre half Jack Parkinson had to be withdrawn through injury and many supporters would have expected Coyle to come on in his place but instead he went for Connor Dymond. He explained “I haven’t played since New Year’s Day so in terms of match fitness, it’s nowhere near where it needs to be.

“I didn’t want to come on and let the boys down. I can’t be involved in training as well as take training so it’s difficult. Jack’s been struggling for a few weeks now with the same problem so whether it’s getting another centre half in or whether I have to try and get some support in on a Thursday, potentially to take training, then I might put myself in the frame of playing if needs be.

“I might not have any options, we’ll have to look at that. We’ll have to see how Jack is. He hasn’t pulled anything. He has a tight abductor apparently so if that’s the case and he gets some treatment on Monday, we’ll see how he is on Tuesday.”

Whilst Coyle was disappointed with the quality provided by the Welling starting eleven, that was not the case with substitute Jamie Philpot. “He was brilliant” said Coyle “I said that in the changing room.

“He works hard. He got his body in the final third and he created even little things like set pieces and corners that we won because of his work-rate. Jeffrey (Monakana)’s cross was good but it was difficult for his header that he scored but he bulleted it in the top corner. I’m really pleased for him.”

Coyle continued “His attitude has been superb. He’s been unfortunate to come out of the team. He is the only one today that I could say has really come out of the day with credit.”

Welling play at Bognor on Tuesday, and Coyle hinted that Philpot might be restored to the starting line-up. “When you play against Bognor, you need more legs, more work-rate and high intensity when you haven’t got the ball and he’s that striker that we’ve got.

“It’s something that we’re going to have to discuss and look at. He was our man of the match for the twenty-five minutes he was on and that sums up our performance today.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.