Although Welling United and Eastleigh were unable to score there were talking points, not least a big penalty call for Welling when Anthony Cook went down in the penalty area.

Wings’ manager Mark Goldberg couldn’t believe it when the referee did not point to the spot. “I’m thoroughly disappointed with decisions that went against us.” he said.

“Two clear cut penalties. I’ve had words (with the officials) after the game. I just can’t see how they can justify the fact that there was contact. Cookie’s (Anthony Cook) running at the pace that he’s running at and any type of contact is going to bring him down. To say that there wasn’t enough contact, there was contact but he dived, then why didn’t he book him? It’s ridiculous.”

That wasn’t the only one to be turned down. He continued “Coombsie (Adam Coombes) claimed the second one was a blatant penalty. Those decisions cost us today as other than that, I think it’s fair to say that we were the better team.”

A week earlier, Welling had been poor against Hampton and Richmond Borough and Goldberg admitted that he had to change things. “We had to respond. We know that what we’ve been doing hasn’t really been working well enough. I’ve got to be open and I’ve got to realise that when we work something to the nth degree, if it’s not quite clicking, I’ll make the change that’s necessary, and we’ll carry on having to make changes until we get it right.

“On Thursday we prepared with a different system to what we started today but Thursday night’s training didn’t go very well so we worked on something else between training and today to make it a bit more simple for the players to understand and I’m really proud of the lads, everyone put in their graft, everyone covered each other. The communication was excellent, and when we got on the ball, we were confident on the ball and certainly, as the game went on, I thought we were the stronger side.”

Changing the system was accompanied by a change of personnel and Goldberg was delighted with the impact of the incoming players. He said “Sanchez (Ming), his attitude throughout his suspension has been first class. In fact it’s been a massive credit. Any doubters that he might have had, he deserved his spot in the side today but I thought Connor (Dymond) did really well in holding midfield today. We’ve only got more to come from Jebby (Jack Jebb). We know that. It was a very encouraging performance.”

Players coming in meant that others missed out, in this case Nathan Green and Theo Widdrington. He said “It was a difficult decision but I felt that the way we set out today, we needed somebody who was a real holding midfielder in there. I think you saw today they were first class when they came on.”

Goldberg admitted that he wasn’t too concerned about who ball number sixty-six is drawn against. “I’ve only got to think now about Tuesday night.” he said. “It’s very hard for me to think about the hat really. We’re in it, but we’re not, and until we get the job done on Tuesday night. We’re still in there with a chance.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.