After yet another lacklustre Welling United away performance, manager Alex Dyer tried to find some positives.

“I’m glad that we had a chance to go in and sort things out.” he said. “We changed the way they were, the attitude, the formation. They were a lot better, second half. I don’t know why we started so poorly. I don’t know whether the lads were on the coach but we started so, so poorly.

“Two goals down, I was thinking it could be four or five if we don’t do something and between myself and Tristan, we had to change it so we changed formation and changed personnel and we were a lot better.

“We got amongst the players at half time, spoke about some home truths, and to be fair to them they responded.” he continued “We got a good goal, great strike from Hatts (Sam Hatton) and just wanted something to break for us to see if we could come away with at least a point. It was not to be, but the second half was encouraging and hopefully we can move on from there.”

Only 33 minutes had passed when Dyer made a double substitution, taking off Pierre Joseph-Dubois and Tyrone Marsh. He confirmed that neither were injured, explaining “I’m in this job because I want to do well and if I see that people are not doing what I think, then I won’t have it.

“I could have made three substitutions. I nearly made three at once but I thought make two and leave one for the end which was needed as Jordan (Brown) came off injured so we used Tom (Richards). It’s a given to work hard. Even if you can’t control a ball you have to work. If I see people who aren’t running around, which is costing us goals and games, I have to do something or I’m not doing my job.”

He then went on to speak about whether the application and attitude were good enough. “I think they (the supporters) saw it in the second half, but in the first half, no, well under par and that’s why we changed it.

“We spoke about the supporters at half time. They got up early in the morning to get here. Tristan, to be fair, said it to them and said about how they travel a long way to support you and you haven’t given them anything back..

“That was brought up at half time, and to be fair to the lads, the ones that stayed on in the second half showed a little bit more heart than they did in the first half. It’s not right that they start the game that way.

“Whether some were thinking about Monday’s cup final in the back of their head is no excuse. They’ve got to be as professional as they can be and take one game at a time and the better players and the better teams do that. You deal with what’s in front of you.”

Although nothing has been agreed yet, Dyer has firm ideas about what he would want to do. “If I was to come in next season things would have to change.” he said, adding “We don’t want to be in the same situation as we are. What we’ve put the supporters through is not right.

“It’s not a given that when you change things, things will automatically improve but you have to get the mentality right. We should be competing. This should be a time of the season when we are not even looking over our shoulder.”

Through reasons not explained, the Welling coach did not arrive at Twerton Park until 14:15, Dyer was not prepared to use that as an excuse saying “We realised that we weren’t going to make it on time. It’s no excuse though, it’s no excuse whatsoever. We got here in enough time to get changed, have a good warm up, and be prepared enough for the game.

“It’s not always about the physical side of things, it’s mentally you have to be right and tuned in. You can only carry a certain amount of players on a one given day, it doesn’t matter what level you’re at . You might be able to carry one or two, but not four, five or six. There’s no excuses, we just weren’t at the races.”

When questioned about the fact that only four players went to acknowledge the suffering supporters who have travelled all over south England this season, Dyer confirmed that Tristan Lewis, his assistant, told the players to go to them. He added “I did point for them to go but if they don’t do it, they don’t do it and that’s the characters you have to change. People think about themselves.

“The mentality and the attitude of the players has to change and if I’m here it will change. If I’m not here, I hope someone else comes in and changes it because that can’t go on.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.