Having inflicted Concord’s only home defeat earlier in the season, Welling United were beaten by them for only their second loss at Park View Road this term.

It took less than thirty seconds for Concord to score and they then had other chances in the early stages. Welling manager Steve King admitted “I think it’s as poor as we’ve played in the first half.” he said. “They could have been three or four up inside fifteen minutes. (It was a) shocking start to the game.

“The ball down the line was a simple ball. We were all over the place. I was very disappointed. We didn’t play to anywhere near where we can play. We didn’t ask enough of their keeper. He’s made one save at the end from Brendan (Kiernan) at the end, and one from Nass (L’Ghoul).”

King continued “I’m looking at the performance today and on Boxing Day and it’s chalk and cheese. It’s nowhere near the levels that we should be producing at this time in the season. They’ve come and done a job. They’ve sat in and they’ve got willing runners.

“They’ve had one shot in the second half that’s hit the underside of the bar and we’ve camped in their half without really hurting them. For their first half performance, I think that they deserved to win the game.”

Having accepted that, he wasn’t too happy with the tactics that Concord deployed, or that they were able to get away with them. “They’re clever.” he said. “Their antics, all game long, the referee bought them and let them slow the game, slow the tempo of the game and decide how the game was going to be managed to see the game out.

“Every time there was a free kick we had to run to get the ball. He didn’t hurry them up. He didn’t produce cards for them at any given time. Nass was getting kicked all over the place as usual and he wasn’t getting any protection from him.”

Although disappointed with the defeat, King didn’t want to get too down. He said “I’ve always said we don’t get too high when we’re high and we don’t get too low when we’re low. I don’t think that we’ve been out of the top seven most of the season.

“Our realistic aim at the start, as a group, as management, was can we make the play-offs and half way through (the season) we’re on course to do that.”

Now, King’s thoughts turn to the next game, away to Dartford on New Year’s Day. “It will be tougher than Boxing Day because they won’t want to get beaten again. I think they realise that it could have been a lot more than what it was and it’s going to be a tough tough game in front of their home crowd.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.