Coming into the game Slough were fifth in the Vanarama National League South, two places below Welling so the Wings’ manager, Steve King, expected a tough game.

As happy as he was to claim the three points, he felt that his team made it harder than it should have been. “We got three points without playing that well.” said King.

“We could have put the game to bed in the first half.” he continued. “We lost our most intelligent player in Jack Jebb which is a big, big miss for us. He’s been outstanding since I’ve come to the club. He’s had ten assists already, and four goals, so his contribution has been fantastic. He’s got a bad knee. I don’t know what’s going to happen. We’ll have to assess him.”

Adam Coombes put Welling ahead in the second minute and they created and missed a host of chances in the first half. King said “I think if we had gone two or three nil up the whole game would have changed completely. All the time (it was one-nil) they were in the game and they got in behind us two or three times and we had to make last ditch tackles.

“From my team’s point of view, we weren’t at our best, we got three points, we’re ten games unbeaten and you can’t ask for any more than that. We’ve played a lot better and drawn games, We’ve played a lot better and lost i.e. Billericay and Eastbourne.”

Although Welling came into the game in good form, Slough did too as King confirmed. “They are a good side. You can see why they’ve caused problems, they’d gone eight unbeaten. Everybody was talking about how flying we were but they were one point behind us coming in today so if we’re flying, what were they?

“I think that they are going to cause a lot of trouble to a lot of teams. Credit to Neil (Baker) and Jon (Underwood). I think that they’ve put a very good side together that are going to be competitive in and around the play-offs this season.”

Coombes also scored Welling’s second goal but as the game is likely to be his only appearance in this loan spell, another striker was still sought. On Thursday, the Wings announced the signing of Matt Paterson. King was delighted and said “I’ve been on it (the transfer) for a few weeks. I’ve said all along that we need another striker who can score goals at this level and I’ve been waiting patiently for the right one to come along and he is the right one.

“He scored bags of goals at Gosport, He scored bags of goals at Havant and he’s done it at Oxford as well, a goal every other game, so it was a great coup to get him over the line. I think that he will add goals to his team.”

The game was played in front of Welling’s second best gate of the season and King was delighted exclaiming “It was fantastic. We looked round at quarter to three and it looked like a couple of hundred in there and then we’ve come out and looked around and I thought that it was a thousand plus.

“It wasn’t our greatest game today, it wasn’t our greatest advert but I think that we showed fight, spirit and determination and we got three points which was the main thing.”

Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.