Although for Welling United the game against Hampton and Richmond Borough was an end of season dead rubber, manager Alex Dyer felt his team could have shown a little more professionalism.

“I thought we were all right at half time.” he said. “I thought the first half went to plan. We were in the game. They had their opportunities, we had our opportunities, but it was a stale game, first half. We went in there (the changing room) at half time and said a few things.

“We came out in the second half and tried to play a bit more, tried to create some chances. Then we found ourselves a goal down. Then we got back in the game with a great free kick and then we let in a goal right at the end.”

There was some doubt about whether the first goal should have stood and Dyer said “Where we were, we thought it was offside but the lino (assistant referee) said no and we’ve got to get on with it.

“He (Hampton striker Stiven Rivic) headed it on his own. We’ve lost our marking somewhere. You do get caught up in the game, in the situation but you’ve got to make sure that you pick up someone in the box and the lad who headed in, he was on his own. The closest person to him was the keeper who first punched it.

“It was disappointing but, as I said, we got ourselves back in the game through a great free kick from Rhysy (Rhys Murrell-Williamson).”

Having equalised with just two minutes remaining, Dyer expected his team to show a bit more nous. “As I said to them in there, it’s being professional to the end, being professional meaning if you can’t win the game you get a point. We got carried away. We wanted to win it.”

He was also unhappy with the defending for the winner. “It was a mistake again.” he said. “One through ball beat all three men at the back and the lad finished it off.”

There was not too much to get excited about in the first half. Dyer said “We tried to start the game at a good tempo but we were sloppy. We’re sloppy in certain things that we do. It’s no lie that we are where we are in the league. We’re not going to be in great shapes. We try to do things to get it right but it’s hard to change things at the end of the season.

“The main objective was to stay in the league and we’ve done that but it doesn’t mean that you can’t finish the season well. I’ve come here and we’ve had four games and we’ve won two and lost two which is not good enough, not by my standard.”

Dyer will continue to look at his squad over the next two games, stating “I can play around with it a little bit. I made some changes today and I’ll do that again, maybe, next week and see how it goes and then put out a team on Monday and try and win the cup game as well, but first of all we’ve got Bath and we’ve got to concentrate on that and see if we can get a win there.”

Musing on the attributes needed to succeed at the level at which Welling are playing, he said “It’s about being aggressive. It’s about playing on people’s mistakes. I don’t think that there’s going to be too many teams in this league that’s going to pass the ball from back to front. They seem to want to get it forward as quickly as possible and play on the mistakes.

“The ones who really want it will win the game because there’s not much difference. We were fifteenth before the game today and they were in the play-offs but there wasn’t much difference. They had that little bit extra heart.

“I wish there was a stronger backbone but that comes with winning games. You get more confidence when you’re winning games than when you lose games. It’s a habit as well but that will come. When you start winning games, all of a sudden you feel six foot tall and you’re ready to go again. When you’re losing games, in your heart you feel defeated. Hopefully, next season we’ll win more games and this club can get up the league.

Fitness has been an issue at various points of the season and Dyer confirmed that it was a problem. “I don’t know what’s gone on before but we’ve got to be fitter, we’ve got to be stronger, we’ve got to compete for every ball. The quick little knock downs, the second ball, we’ve got to be right on it and we’ve got to be able to last 95 minutes. That’s where we’ve got to be next year. We’ve got to start pre-season well, make sure everyone’s at it, and install some discipline and install some professionalism into the place. It’s been lacking a little bit.”

After his previous games in charge, he has flat batted questions on his plans beyond this season, but confirmed that he is in talks with the Welling chairman. “I’ve spoken to Mark (Goldberg) about next season.” he said. “I’ve not made a decision about next season. We will have a chat again, maybe tonight and maybe during the week. I wouldn’t have taken this opportunity if I didn’t think long term as well. A lot of things need to be done. I’d like to be at a club where we might be challenging for at least play offs.”

There a small margins that can make a big difference and Dyer said “Teams I’ve watched, like last week, Chelmsford, they have a little bit more know how. It all comes down, as well, to finance, you can’t lie about it. People pay decent money at this level to get the better players.”

“We’ve underachieved big time. Come next year I hope that the budget is a decent size so that we can go and compete, get the right players. Fighting relegation’s not right for the size of a club like this.”

At the end of season presentations later in the evening, Welling chairman Mark Goldberg spoke about the long term plan to regain their place in the Vanarama National “There’s one man that I hope will lead us on the journey. He’s only been with us for five minutes but we already have felt the aura of him being around us. I hope you feel the same way as I do, that we would want Alex Dyer to be the man that leads us there.”