It was a bitter-sweet afternoon for Welling United as they were held at home by Havant and Waterlooville leaving manager Warren Feeney with mixed emotions.

They looked as though they were going to claim a crucial three points only to be pegged back by an equaliser with what was almost the last kick of the match.

After the game, Welling United manager Warren Feeney had mixed emotions, saying “As much as I’m disappointed, I’m proud as well because a lot of people don’t realise how hard it is when you’re down there and you’re losing games. 

“The character to come back from one-nil down, and you look at the games where we’ve gone down and we could have gone further down, but we’ve got ourselves in a position where we should have won the game. The players were outstanding and hopefully it’s a point nearer to where we want to go.”

It was a much improved performance to their Easter Monday display and Feeney continued  “I was disappointed with the boys on Monday and I said to them that we look for a reaction and look at what we can simplify for them. I thought that we were outstanding. 

“I didn’t feel that we deserved to go one-nil down at the break. Ben Wells had a fantastic effort that hit the crossbar and there were one or two other ones that on another day may have gone in but I still believed that we could turn this game around at half time and the boys have got to play like that until the end of the season.”

Describing what he said to the team in his half time talk, he continued “Keep believing. Keep doing the good things. Keep doing the right things and I believe that we will turn this game around.”

The Welling equaliser came from the penalty spot and Feeney was in no doubt that the spot kick award was correct “I think that with football now, if you pull a shirt in the box it’s a penalty kick.” he said “The boy was doing it all game and I’m glad the referee was strong enough to give it and we could probably have had another couple but the disappointing thing is that everybody knows, come the end of it, the number of minutes he added on.” 

Welling went ahead through Ade Shokunbi with twelve minutes remaining and Feeney knew that Havant would respond “Teams are going to go for it.” He said. “It was the same with us at Eastbourne last week. We had nothing to lose. “It’s a mindset but I can’t fault the players today. Yes, it’s a disappointment with conceding in the ninety-fifth minute of four minutes of injury time but I’m delighted with the players performance.”

He fully believes that his team have enough in them to avoid relegation but he knows that he has to keep them strong. He stated “It’s difficult when you’ve got players in there who are deflated after the game but we’ve got to keep positive. They gave me a fantastic performance today, everyone. I was pleased with a couple of the players as well who’ve been out in the cold a little bit, who’ve come in, but we’ve got to keep going. If we play like that, we’ll be okay.”

Feeney also acknowledged the importance of the supporters. “The fans have got to be with us, they’ve been brilliant. The boys have given their all you can see in their performance. I’ve said to the players that I can take getting beaten if you give a hundred percent. They gave a hundred percent today. We’ve got to carry that on right until the end and hopefully, this time in two weeks we’ll be sitting where we want to be.”

His message for the Welling faithful was “Get behind us, stay behind us, and hopefully if we give performances like that we will get it done, but it will go right to the wire. We’ve got to make sure we just worry about ourselves.”

At the final whistle, the reactions of the two teams told it’s own story. Whilst Havant would have expected to turn up and win, their celebrations at securing a point were in total contrast to Welling’s mooted reactions for whom a draw was a respectful result. Feeney said “I know Paul (Doswell) and Bairdy (Ian Baird) well and you could see that at the end of the game they were delighted. 

“They wished me all the best and said that they’d got out of jail there but let’s talk about ourselves. I thought that everybody did the club proud today and that’s the standard that the boys have got to set now for the next three games. That’s all we want. It’s attitude and I was pleased with every single one of them today.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.