Gene Kennedy’s brace against Worthing kept hopes of staying in the Vanarama National League South alive for Welling United. After the game, manager Brian Statham shared his thoughts.

“(I’m) absolutely thrilled.” he said “There would obviously have been doubt amongst fans, those watch from afar. Maybe some of our players may have doubted whether they would get a result today, but the coaching team, we were really positive around the psychology and the thinking of how we could beat them and we had a chat for fifteen minutes before the game. We showed them a video of some moments in football history where nothing is impossible. 

“I think that they’ve listened to everything that we said today and asked of them and it’s taken ninety-seven minutes to win two-nil and keep a clean sheet, and I think that was fully deserved. They (Worthing)’re a good side, there’s no doubt about that. I thought that they didn’t get into the areas that they may have done, and they have done most of the season. Our goalkeeper has made maybe two or three outstanding saves, a couple of shots of theirs over the bar but, overall, I thought we deserved that.”

On the tactics going into the game, Statham said “We asked them to turn it into a bit of a war really, because we knew what a good side they are and if we were able to disrupt the flow and the rhythm then that would have allowed us to get on the counter, which we did a fair amount of times if you consider that Sahid (Kamara) has gone off with cramp after eighty five minutes. 

“He had an awful lot of football because he was the outlet, and he caused  problems, and same on the other side with Scott Kashket. Their endeavour off the ball was excellent and it made us stronger without the football and then offensively, on the transition counter, we had them in areas where we wanted them to be.”

Kennedy’s first goal came from a training ground move. “The goal was worked on that set piece on Tuesday” explained Statham. “I think we walked through it half a dozen times and we knew that was an opportunity to get round the back and we’ve executed that, we go one-nil up. It’s about being clever in how you set the team up and what areas we could exploit against our opposition and if we could work on that on Tuesday and Thursday this week, it’s exactly what we will do.”

On Kennedy’s second goal, again set up by Sam Cornish, Statham said “When you’ve got three centre forwards on the pitch that have got the quality that they have, I think that’s the first time that you’ve seen those three at that level for quite some time, and they’ll know that.

 “But for your centre midfield players to chip in with two goals and with the other being the creator, then that’s an awful lot of effort, lot of work on their part. Sam has ran thirty or forty yards and nicks it and then we’re in and Gene’s worked extremely hard to join him.”

Statham was also delighted with the clean sheet, just Welling’s seventh of the season. “It’s testament to when you get into the psychology of the players, what is achievable.” he purred “They’ve all bought into it and that was a result of what we’ve asked of them, just from an organisational point of view, and the mental side.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.