After Welling United’s early end to all cup campaigns this season, player manager Jamie Coyle was very unhappy with his team’s poor display.

“Our quality today was appalling, absolutely appalling.” he said. “The idea was to be a bit more resilient at the back and to not concede, like five goals in the last two games, so the idea was to be a little more compact at the back, and it worked.

“They didn’t have many chances, although they had a lot of possession, and we actually got in some great positions on the counter attack in the first half and passed it off the pitch unopposed. You can’t really legislate for that.”

Too many players were off their game according to Coyle. “It wasn’t just one or two.” he said. “It was three or four players out there. There were so many passengers throughout the whole 95 minutes that you’re never going to win a game of football unfortunately.

“I wouldn’t even say we’ve had a go.” he continued. “I’m really disappointed. I think there’s players on their heels, they’re very reactive. There’s half hearted tackles going in. I questioned the boys desire today. I’ve backed them all year when the going’s been tough and the fans are on the players backs. I’ve stock with the boys and today I can’t legislate for some of their performances. I thought it was abysmal.

Coyle gave an example saying “What sums it up, Bradders (Tom Bradbrook) has done really well to get in behind, the keeper’s parried it onto the bar, and no-one’s following it up. Everyone’s on their heels, and that’s summarised our performance today. We’re just reactive to everything all over the park. Second balls in midfield were cleared and everyone’s on their heels again.”

Although Welling struck the woodwork twice, Coyle didn’t cite that as being unfortunate. He said “We’ve hit the post and we’ve hit the bar but we didn’t threaten enough and the quality on the pitch, I never question the quality, but today there were too many players who were way off it.”

Despite the small crowd present, Coyle wasn’t prepared to use that as an excuse. He did concede that it didn’t help. He said “It was tough. There weren’t many people here, there wasn’t much of an atmosphere. The players have got to create their own atmosphere. They’ve got to create their own tempo. We said it at the start, ‘You’ve got to dictate the tempo of the game.’”

Ian Gayle had only been on the pitch as a replacement for a sick Jack Parkinson when Weston scored the only goal but Coyle was keen to put on record that the change was not responsible for the goal. He said “He (Dayle Grubb)’s got past Eli (Phipps) too easily and I think that Connor (Dymond) was already on a yellow so he had to be careful. Coming inside, Grubby has got past two or three players too easily and we are exposed at the back.”

There may be personnel changes as a backlash to this result. Coyle said “I’m going to have to look at it this week because there’s a couple of players who’ve given us a couple of performances now that are not good enough. I’ve got a couple of players that I’m looking at getting in.”

However, it’s not easy to recruit at this time of the season. “It is tough. That’s why we’ve been forced into a lot of loan moves this season” he said. There may be more opportunities when the transfer window opens in January and he confirmed “We’ll have a look as a management team and see what’s available that will add quality to the team.

“We’ve got our eye on two or three for January. After today, no-one’s really done enough to keep their shirt.

Including a cameo for Dymond at Havant and Waterlooville, Welling have used six goalkeepers so far this season with Ryan Sandford, on loan from Millwall, having made his debut against Weston. Coyle said “Ryan did all right today. He didn’t have much to do really, apart from picking the ball out of the net. He kicked really well so hopefully he’ll come in and do well.”

Explaining the whereabouts of Kleton Perntreou and Calum Kitescha, Coyle explained “Kleton had acupuncture (on his back injury) last week and it hasn’t cleared up. We’ll keep monitoring it.

“We’re going to get Calum dual registered somewhere so we’ll get him some games because he’s a bit rusty. He’s been out for nearly a year now so we need to get him some games and we’ll monitor how he gets on.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.