Taylor Maloney’s penalty was the difference as Welling United claimed all three points at high flying Chelmsford City. After the game, Welling manager Warren Feeney was not surprised with the performance.
“I sensed it before the game.” he said “The standards in training went up and I said it to the boys the last two weeks, the way I want it, the way I’m used to and they took it out on the pitch today and I couldn’t fault any of them.
“I thought for the first thirty five minutes, thirty eight minutes, we dominated the game against a team that’s up on merit where they are. I’ve watched them. They’re a good side. I thought we let them, in the last ten minutes of the first half, into the game.”
“I thought we came out (for the second half) and there was only going to be one winner. We could have played for another half hour and I felt comfortable, and that’s not being disrespectful. We defended well, played on the counter very well and we deserved the win today.”
“It was a real professional job today. As much as I was a striker I love my defenders to keep clean sheets. You look at the boys today. They through bodies onto the line.”
Taylor Maloney scored the only goal from the penalty spot four minutes after the break. Feeney said: “For me it was a penalty. It was a great ball in. Our player was running in for it, their keeper was in no man’s land and he’s caught him. I don’t know what people were moaning about. It was a stonewall penalty and what a penalty it was. It was an old Shearer type penalty by Taylor.
“Sometimes you look at it and it’s an early time to score . It’s a credit to the players how well we defended for the next forty minutes.”
Two players made Welling debuts. “We’ve brought in a couple of players.” confirmed Feeney. “I looked at it today and thought I’ve actually got a bench as well that I can rely on. Full credit to everyone at the club. That was a proper performance today that did the club proud. To come here, get a clean sheet and get a one-nil was a proper old school Italian performance.”
“Manny (Parry)’s been brilliant for me. Manny’s a big part of my plans. Kodi (Lyons-Foster)’s one that I’ve looked at for months. I tried to get him five months ago but rightly so, he wanted to stay in the National League but we had another chance and I got the phone call at half past ten on Thursday night when I was about to go to sleep saying ‘I want to come to Welling’ so I rushed it through yesterday. He’s only trained one day.”
“Kyrell (Lisbie) has been with us for two or three days. He’s from a great football family. You can see what the kid’s got. I said to him ‘I want you to go to the next level.’ He’s got ability. He’s got pace that frightens people and I want players to play with a smile on their faces.”
Feeney is also delighted that Aaron Powell’s loan has been extended. “Aaron’s agreed to stay. He’s got quality. He probably gets frustrated at times. You can see what he wants to do. He wants to play the right way and I’m thankful to Peterborough that we’ve got the kid for another month. If we can extend it to the end of the season I’d love to keep him because I want competition for places.
“Chi (Ezennolim)’s a fantastic player and you know when you’re keeping someone like Chi out of the team that you’ve got two good players. It’s up to Chi now to fight his way back into the team. Chi’s a massive part of my plans.”
He was also delighted for the good number of Welling supporters in the ground: “There’s no-one who gets frustrated more than me and we just want performances like that, competitive like that, and it’s pleasing to send the fans home happy and I’m sure that they’ll have a week looking forward to our rivals next Saturday.”
Picture supplied by Dave Budden.