Having failed to make the most of their first half chances. Maidstone United were forced to settle for a point against a determined Welling United on Easter Monday. After the game, Welling manager Rod Stringer gave his comments in the press area.

“We knew that it was going to be tough here today.” He said. “We had great support and it was a game of two halves to be fair.

“We started probably the worst I’ve seen us since I’ve been at the club. For twenty, twenty-five minutes, we looked like we were giving them every opportunity to get behind us and if it wasn’t for our goalkeeper (Reice Charles-Cook) we would probably have been two or three down or even four or five so we changed it.”

“We made a substitution. We went to a back four. From then we galvanised ourselves to get in at one-nil down. I think anything more than that would have been a mountain to climb.”

Stringer continued: “We believed that second half, especially the way the wind was playing which was a factor of the first half, that if we could be good on the ball and win a few more first and second balls in areas, we’d cause them a problem. I think you witnessed that we definitely did that in the second half.”

He was not happy about the way that his side started: “Men against boys.” he said ”We spoke about how strong they are, how big and powerful they are. We did our research on them. We know they’re a very good side. I’m sure that they will make the play-offs and are probably favourites to go up.” 

However, he was happier with the way Welling came back. He continued: “We knew that coming here and getting a point was probably as good as a victory. We never sat in. We never tried to back off and hope that we could nick something. We came to go toe to toe with them but for the first twenty five minutes we were off it and if I was George (Elokobi) I’d be disappointed that they didn’t put the game to bed.”

“You’ve got to give our boys the credit. We changed our shape and it gave us a little extra momentum and at half time I said to them there’s a goal in here for us. I fancy us to do that. I thought our subs today were great impacts and Munnsy (Jack Munns), who’s just joined us, comes on and scores one from outside the box. It was a great finish from him.”

Finishing up, he reiterated how important the Welling faithful were to the performance: “I’m all about character as you know” he said.

“When I say about character you’ve got to say about our supporters today. They were magnificent. With them there, and us kicking down that way, that gave us that little bit of extra momentum to try and keep forcing things.” 

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.