After two defeats on the spin, Welling United bounced back with an important win against Torquay United. Manager Rod Stringer gave his thoughts after the game.

“I thought we were outstanding from start to finish.” he said. “We made sure we had good shape when they had good moments in the game but I just thought from back to front, from the first half through to the second half when we were going up the hill, I thought some of our football was excellent.

“I was a bit disappointed not to come in and half time with a goal to the good. I think their goalie’s pulled off a worldie save in the second half. Rhys Lovett pulled one of for us at nil-nil but overall that was a full solid performance from the boys. We’ve got so many missing and injured at the minute. To put on a performance like that with a system that we haven’t even worked on showed you how hard the boys really worked for us today.

“Some of the lads came to the party. I thought Longy (Elliot Long) was outstanding, I thought the new lad, (Charlie) Pegrum was very good, and even Dave Carty who came on up front and gave us another platform up there, as well, after Chuks (Anointed Chukwu) had put a good shift in.

“Defensively, we kept a clean sheet and that goes to the back five and the midfield had to work very hard there because they’re a very good side. They’re a full time side, they’re fit, they’ve got some great players, they play a certain way and they’re a very difficult team to play against but I thought we coped with it throughout the game.”

After losing two on the spin, it was important to get some points on the board. Stringer admitted “I don’t think we were at our best against Chesham (United). I thought that when we started getting into a little bit of what we’re about, we went down to ten men and it made it very difficult for us and we lost the game. It was quite disappointing to lose my first home game but to come back and bounce back like that today is a real great marker.

“Then we went to Hemel (Hempstead Town) on Monday night and I thought we were outstanding. Other than put the ball in the net like we did today, that’s all that I thought was missing to have a good away win at Hemel but it wasn’t meant to be. They did well. They tool the points off us on Monday night and to bounce back like this today, against one of the best teams in this division, if not the best team in this division, it’s a massive three points. I think that the application and the way that we passed, and our energy levels, winning first and second balls, I thought all round the park we were outstanding.”

Although very different, the two goals against Torquay were excellent. Stringer purred “For the level that we play at, for step two, you don’t see them in the football league. They were that good. We’ve got some real flair in this group. Charlie’s come in on loan from Orient and he’s given us another dimension.

“We could have played two up front today. We had a couple of forwards on the bench Dave Carty, who did well, and Reece Grant who came on and did a little cameo for us at the end but we felt that the way that our injuries are, they’re all in areas where we went quite narrow through the middle. We didn’t have a lot of width outside. We’re asking two centre halves to play full back to give you a little bit of width so it really nullifies us getting up and down the sides.”

He continued “I thought that we dealt with their system quite well. We didn’t really let their wide players hurt us. We dealt with their centre forwards very well and I thought we won a lot of first and second balls in the middle of the park. When we got the ball in the right areas, and the little one-twos, a bit of movement and the running off the back of them, we really caused them a problem. The two goals were very clinical and was great football to watch in the build up.”

Images courtesy of Dave Budden