Having pulled back a two goal lead, Welling United were beaten by an injury time special from Alfie Pavey who started the season with the Wings before moving on to Dartford.

Welling manager Jamie Coyle said “If there was going to be a winner it was always going to be Alfie Pavey, unfortunately. What a fantastic goal.

“Before that, we’ve had some great opportunities to be ahead in the game and not taken them. Gaylie’s (Ian Gayle) from two yards out and he’s not even hit the target and we’ve hit the post twice. The boys have put in a real good effort today and shown some great desire all around the pitch and it was a great reaction from that performance on Saturday (a 4-1 defeat at Chelmsford City).”

However, some of the defending didn’t please him. “They were two scrappy goals that we conceded. We didn’t stop the cross out wide and then we were static on our heels in the box which was disappointing. It’s something that we have to address as we have conceded too many goals, especially here at Park View Road.”

Although the defeat was disappointing Coyle was able to take many positives from the game. “There were some individual performances that were great.” he said. “I thought that Connor (Dymond) and Orlu (Durojaiye) won the midfield battle for us which we were nowhere near on Saturday. Parky (Jack Parkinson) did really well dealing with (Danny) Mills. He’s a decent striker at this level. Elliott (Romain) worked his socks off and didn’t stop for 95 minutes”

Coyle is confident that Welling will turn their form around should they show the same will consistently. He said “We’ve got some quality players in there that will keep plugging away and we’ll keep working hard on the training ground. All we need to do is to go on another little run like we did earlier in the season, one loss in fourteen games, and we’ll find ourselves in the top three again.

Strangely, the Vanarama National League has no fixtures scheduled for Saturday 30^th December and Coyle admitted that he was surprised but that will help with the injury situation. Bradley Goldberg tweaked his hamstring against Dartford and was withdrawn at half time as a precaution. The break gives him additional recovery time, as well as Coyle’s own illness that resulted in him spending most of Christmas Day in bed.

Also, the management team will all be able to attend other matches. “It gives us an opportunity to watch some players and do some scouting so we look at that as a positive as well” he said.

Joe Healy will also be available having completed his suspension so Coyle hopes that the only squad member who will not be available is Pierre Joseph-Dubois. The manager gave the latest on him saying “He’s having his operation on the 11^th January and he’ll be six weeks in rehab after that so we’ll get him back towards the end of the season.”

Earlier in his career, Coyle played for Dartford under their manager Tony Burman but he was keen to play that down. “It’s just another game.” he said. “It’s obviously one that you’d like to win. It’s a big rivalry for the fans and for the club but it wasn’t to be today.

“I think, as you can see from the fans at the end, they’ve stayed behind the boys and remained positive and clapped them off the pitch, and that’s great.”

On New Year’s Day, the two teams meet again for the second half of the double.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.