Rod Stringer suffered a Vanarama National League South defeat for the first time since taking over at Welling United in a tight game at Farnborough.

They started slowly and their defence had to work hard to repel a string of Guy Hollis throw ins and Ollie Pendlebury corners.

Hollis had the hosts’ first clear cut opportunity when getting on the end of one of the corners and heading over. Edon Pruti then headed beyond the far post from another Pendlebury delivery.

Pendlebury then had a header tipped over by Reice Charles-Cook before putting a free kick straight into the Welling goalkeeper’s arms.

Cameron Green caused problems with a low free kick that pin-balled around the six yard box before Farnborough cleared but another Hollis throw in resulted in the hosts going ahead five minutes before the break.

It was only half cleared as far as Aaron Kuhl, and the influential midfielder hooked it home.

Chaos then ensued with half time approaching. Sonny Fish burst through and was brought down by a poor tackle.

Referee Tommy Breen let play go on but Welling’s advantage came to nothing. The referee then went back and got out his yellow card ready to caution Pruti, who had already been booked, before he was persuaded to talk to his assistant referee while Jordan Norville-Williams offered to take the booking.

Eventually, CJ Fearn was cautioned. Play was restarted but then the half was ended with over a minute of the minimum three added minutes still to be played.

After the break, Welling looked a little more lively and Fish had a shot blocked before Riccardo Di Trolio headed a Green corner wide of the near post.

Kuhl scuffed a shot wide for Farnborough after a corner was half cleared. Selim Saied then spun on the edge of the area but fired over.

At the other end, Fish headed down into the path of Lachlan Byrd but he was unable to force it home through a forest of Farnborough legs. Green then came even closer with a shot from the edge of the area that came back off the post. Reece Grant hooked the rebound over but his effort would not have counted as he had strayed offside.

Byrd headed over from a Green free kick before Farnborough were back on the attack and Fearn’s header from another Pendlebury corner flew wide of the near post.

Despite the minimum of backlift, Welling’s Jason Adigun fizzed a shot just over before Kuhl came close to adding a second with ten minutes remaining when his low drive missed the far post by inches with Charles-Cook an onlooker.

Stringer made a triple substitution with seven minutes remaining but it was too little too late and Welling’s eight match unbeaten run came to an end. 

Farnborough: Turner, Young, Norville-Williams, Hollis, Fearn, Pruti, Kuhl. Pendlebury, Kasimu (Bradbury 68), Matthews-Lewis (Clark 79), Saied (Holmes 68).

Subs not used: Robinson, Haigh.

Goalscorers: Kuhl (40)

Yellow cards: Pruti, Fearn, Pendlebury

Welling United: Charles-Cook, Lema, Green (Foyo 85), Di Trolio, Ellul, Byrd, Adigun, A. Grant (Papadopoulos 85), Fish (Johnson 85), R. Grant, Kennedy.

Subs not used: Burchell, Holness. 

Goalscorers: None 

Yellow cards: Adigun, Stringer

Referee: Tommy Breen

Assistants: Thomas Berry and Derrick Laing

Attendance: 574

Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.