Although the draw at Oxford City left Welling United bottom of the Vanarama National League South, their performance was far better than when they last met and they can consider themselves unlucky not to take all three points.

Manager Brad Quinton was happy with how his new players settled in but couldn’t believe that they hadn’t been awarded a second half penalty when Aaron Drewe cleared Lyle Della-Verde’s shot off the line with his hand.

“Their right back has come over to me in the dugout and said ‘what a save I made there at the end’.”said Quinton.

“The linesman’s standing right in front of us and he can see it but the referee came up to him and said ‘Is it a handball?’ and he said ‘You make the decision’. He (the referee) said ‘Well, it’s a corner then.’ For a manager or a coach or anyone to hear comments like that, it’s terrible. It’s ridiculous.

“Then, I’d have put my mortgage on Joe Taylor tucking that (injury time chance) in from two yards but the keepers come from front post to back post and he’s blocked it to stop Joe Taylor from scoring a debut goal.”

As frustrated as he was, there was much to be happy about. “I thought we were superb today with how we battled and how we worked. We played some very, very good football at times. I’d have taken a point.”

Two centre backs, Finn O’Mara and Rob Strachan, made their Welling debuts and Quinton was delighted with their pairing. “I thought they were superb today. Whether on the ground or crosses coming in, they dealt with everything.”

Taylor and Rhys Murrell-Williamson also made their Welling league bows, the latter for the second time, and Quinton was happy with their immediate impact. “He (Taylor)’s a great player.” said Quinton. “When it comes to him, he knows what he wants to do. He’s already got a picture. He’s going to be a massive, massive asset for us.

“Rhys, as well, those two have not had a lot of game time in the league below so they’ve been off and we had to look at it and freshen them up as well. They’re two threats, those two. They’ll be great for us.”

Following the departure of Anthony Cook, Ryan Blackman has been given the armband. Quinton confirmed “We (the management team) spoke about it with him and Reice (Charles-Cook) in goal being vice captain. He allowed the players in front of him to excel. It’s part of his game. He does the unsung hero work, the nitty gritty, break up the play, put the ball in the right areas but he also knows when to turn teams as well, to take pressure off your back four. Its something that I’ve been thinking about so I wish him well. 

“The boys were excellent considering the stop start we’ve had.” he continued.  “We’re in a false position. We all know that. We are a good team. At the end of the day, if we start taking our chances, I keep saying it, if we do, and when we do, we will go on a great run. We will, absolutely.

“The boys that came in, they were excellent today. I think they complemented the boys and the subs who came on as well did very well as well. We’ve got a lot of games coming up and I think that a lot of teams will be looking over their shoulder at us.”

“If you’re consistent and you’re winning games and playing well, and you’re battling hard for one another, not for me, but for everyone, and the fans see that on the stream, and the fans see that when they’re in the ground, you’re going to get a lot of rewards. It’s tough when you’ve got no fans in here to try and get them to do that, but overall I was really impressed with our fitness levels today. Fair play to the boys, they’ve been looking after themselves. We looked a lot fitter than I thought we would have been so I’m impressed going into Tuesday’s game.” 

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.