Although Welling’s run of four consecutive away wins was ended, assistant manager Hugo Langton was happy with their draw at Hemel Hempstead Town.

After last weekend’s three all draw with Concorde, Welling made changes to the defence to try and combat their opponents’ strengths. Langton explained: “The formation hasn’t changed, the shape hasn’t changed. It’s just the personnel within it we changed a little bit.

“Connor (Dymond) played left back, Gayley (Ian Gayle) played right back and Coylie (Jamie Coyle) came back in the middle.” Langton continued “We felt that we wanted to go with a bit of height and power to begin with and finish the game with pace. Whilst the first half was not great, we were a lot better in the second half.”

Conceding the goals in the manner Welling did disappointed Langton. He said: “We felt the two goals were soft from our point of view but it’s a hard place to come. They’re a good side. They’re doing well, like us, so it was always going to be an exciting game. If you look at the weather and the pitch, it was a battle but also I thought it was a good game of football.

“They were the home team. They had the impetus. We’re really happy to have been two down at half time and to have come back and shown our character and our fighting spirit. It was very, very pleasing.

“We had a great spell where we scored both goals and we could have added to it, but to be fair to Hemel, they finished the game strongly and on about 78 minutes, on the side, we were thinking ‘Should we just shut up shop and take the point or do we try and be expansive and try to get the winner?’ We felt that just shut it down and try to take the point. If we could hit them on the counter, we would do.”

Overall, Langton felt that the draw was the correct result, saying: “Had we won the game it would probably have been harsh on Hemel and if we had lost, after our second half performance, we would have felt aggrieved. For me, personally, I thought that it was a good point, it was a fair point between two sides who are trying to push themselves up the table.

“It was always going to be a good game. Nobody was ever going to come here today and spank the other. At half time, perhaps some people might have thought differently but we regrouped and made changes and it paid dividends.”

Preparations during the previous week included pinpointing the main dangers. He explained: “We predicted that Jordan Parkes was a dangerous player out on Archie (Johnson)’s side and we wanted to be sure that we were defensively stronger which is what they did with Jeffrey Monakana. You highlight the opposition danger man.

“Jeffrey’s been in form and Jordan Parkes is a great player, one of the best players in this division, probably the most two footed player I’ve ever seen in non league football but you get to stages in the game where you think you’ve got enough on the bench to change stuff up. That’s what the bench is for and the lads who came off the bench massively influenced the game.”

There was also praise for ‘Non League Frank Lampard’ Joe Healy and his wonder goal. “We felt that there was a foul on Tom Bradbrook. He (the referee)’s played on and everyone’s ‘How has he not given that?’ and the keeper’s come out of the box and he’s not got it right. From their point of view it’s the worst possible player it can fall to as he’s a class act, Joe, and he showed it with his goal and his performance.

“I heard the Welling fans singing ‘Healy from the half way line’ but it was about five yards inside. It’s what Joe’s capable of. He’s doing it week in and week out at the moment, not scoring from the half way line, but he’s performing very well at the moment.”

Once again, the travelling supporters were earmarked for praise. Langton commented: “We’ve said all along that we knew we had to work hard to win them over and I feel that we have done. It was difficult early in the season for them as they can see on paper that they’ve got some good names and some good players. It just wasn’t happening.

“It takes a little bit of time but they’ve got behind us. The noise that they made when we got going in the second half, we geed them up and they geed us up. That’s what it’s all about. We wanted to put smiles back on people’s faces and I think in the last month or two we’ve definitely done that.”

He continued: “We’re massively grateful for their support and they came today in massive numbers. Long may that keep happening, We really appreciate that.”

Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.