Having lost three on the spin, Welling United bounced back with victory over previously unbeaten Concord Rangers. After their heavy defeat at St Albans forty-eight hours earlier, manager Steve Lovell was delighted with the reaction.

He said “It’s a good win after the three games and results we’ve had so far.

“It’s brilliant for the boys. It’s not so much the result. It’s the character. To lose three games like we have done, being one-nil up and missing a penalty. I think if that had gone in it would have been game over because we were well on top.

“Going forward today, we were excellent today and the difference was today that we had four defenders defending” Lovell continued. “They defended properly and it allowed us to play going forward, allowed us to get the ball and create the chances that we did today.”

Lovell likes to play attacking enterprising football when possible and he said “It wasn’t just the performance. It was a really good game of football. It was an attacking game of football by both sides and I thought that we were excellent going forward. I thought that we were going to score every time we attacked.”

Although Dipo Akinyemi had a penalty save, Lovell didn’t blame his centre forward. “People miss penalties.” he said. “You can’t fault Dipo. He’s hit it perfectly into the bottom corner and the keeper’s made a great save. Their keeper, I thought, was the best player. He kept them in the game.

“He’s made a great save from Ben (Allen), another from Dipo, the penalty save…” 

When Concord levelled in the second half, Concord were enjoying a good spell but it seemed to spur Welling on. “It was a great feeling when the second goal went in for everybody.” enthused Lovell. “We all love football but we don’t like the bad things in it which is losing, and losing in the way that you shouldn’t.”

As happy as he was about the win, he was keen to keep the players grounded. “We’ve only won one game.” he said “It’s something we’ve got to build on, to work on.”

However, he was as happy as the supporters with the result saying “I enjoyed the game today and I always do enjoy the game when people are trying to do the right things and working hard and that’s what they did. I’m really pleased for the supporters today, really pleased for them. They saw what we will be all about.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.