There was further disappointment for Welling United when they fell to defeat at home to Boreham Wood leaving manager Rod Stringer to reflect on what could have been.

After the game, Welling manager Rod Stringer said: “They are a good side. We’ve played some good sides in the last week. We’ve played Torquay away, we played Hampton and Richmond in midweek here, and we played Boreham Wood today.”

“They’re one of the biggest spenders in the league. We played Hampton who’d had a free Saturday and today we’ve played Boreham Wood who’ve had a free Saturday. We’ve had to really push ourselves and dig deep today.”

“We’ve literally only one player outside today’s squad available and I can’t knock my boys for that. It’s just wish they could smell that little bit more aggression, get behind teams more, have more attempts on goal.”

He continued: “I thought we were very disciplined in their first half performance. We knew what they would be, they would be very good with the ball and I thought they came here with a slightly different game plan.”

“They were a bit more direct than we had expected but credit goes to us as well the way that we were shutting off the lanes and keeping it nice and tight.”

“We know that if you try and go man for man against Boreham Wood, they’re going to be better than us so we had our game plan. We stuck to it and it’s very disappointing that the goal that they scored from was a mistake on our behalf.”

“We were trying to sit in and be patient and when we do get out, let’s be good with it but we got to certain areas of the pitch, then we looked a little bit clueless and we never effected their goal enough. I don’t think we asked a question of their goalkeeper all game.”

Stringer has kept faith with his players but accepts that he may have to make changes to add a bit more steel to his starting line-ups.

“We’re going to have a busy week this week.” he confirmed. “We do need a little bit more experience out there. We look very young in areas. We’ve got so many players under the age of twenty-four and they’re very good technical players, and they’re very honest players, but sometimes you just need that little more aggression in all areas.”

“We certainly need a goalscorer who can put the ball in the back of the net, especially if it’s against the run of play at times. Today we could have took something and went one-nil up because we did have a few chances in the first half so, we’re going to have to move things about.”

“It’s my job to do that and as I said to the club I’m still confident that me and Kev (Watson) will get them out of this.”

It’s a difficult balancing act between helping young player to progress, and ensuring that the team picks up good results.

“We want to help these younger players try and get their careers back on the road but at the same time we need to try and help the club have a sensible season. They’re all great lads. The majority live at home with their mum and dads. They’re not here because it’s a monetary thing.”

“We train two mornings a week so we try to give them something that they’re used to as pretty much all of these players have been in the pro game and have fallen out of it.”

“I’ve just said to the boys in there that, unfortunately, it won’t be nice, but it may be the case that I have to twist rather than stick.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.