On a heavy pitch Welling United and St Albans City battled hard before claiming a point apiece in the Vanarama National League South with manager Rod Stringer believing it was a fair result.

After the match, Wings boss Stringer said: “Credit to us and St Albans and the officials for letting the game go ahead. It was a really tough pitch and I know that there’s been a lot of work on this pitch over the last couple of days to get it playable. It was a tough pitch for both teams.”

“(I was) Disappointed to go one-nil up then an own goal for their equaliser but if we’re being honest, probably a draw was a fair result. I asked a lot out of my players today to be a lot more energetic, a lot more aggression and I felt that they did that. All around the park, everyone was doing their jobs and working for one another which was good.”

Having played down the slope in the first half, Stringer was edgy about how the second period would pan out. He said: “We were up the hill, second half, with them heavy legged and I was a little bit concerned but to be fair I thought we played the hill very well.”

“We changed our shape second half. We brought Josh Redfearn on as Chiori (Johnson) took a knock when he had that tackle out there and I thought we saw the game through quite well second half but you have to give them credit. They’re a good little side. They’ve got a lot of entry. They looked to probe, winning a lot of seconds, moving the ball and shifting it in good areas.”

“I thought the left back for them (Brandon Mason) was very good. He’s the one that got the cross in. If we’d been tighter on that, I don’t think the cross comes in. It’s come in, hit Dave (Winfield) on the shoulder, and it’s gone in.”

“We could have been talking about a one-nil win, which I’d have been over the moon with, delighted with, but unfortunately, we didn’t get over the line and they got an equaliser when it looked like we were going to win.”

Many people look at the games against the teams below as ‘must wins’, however, Stringer had a different opinion.

“When I look at today, they’re probably must not lose games if I’m being honest.” he said. “Is a point enough for us today? No, but on reflection I thought we scored a very good goal and Harvey Walker, on his debut after being at the club so long, nearly broke through and nearly put us two-one up.”

“Great to see him back, great to see some of the new players as well that we brought in. I thought James Alabi was excellent up front, he was very strong for us, Jayden (Davis) scored again, that’s two he’s got for us, great header, and I thought Dan Martin again, worked his socks off and gave us everything. I thought there were some good performances out there.”

He also felt that the return of Welling’s first choice goalkeeper made a difference. “It was nice to have Rhys Lovett back in,” he confirmed.

“I thought he looked more assured in goal, we weren’t panicking. They had a few corners in the first half and second half that we had to deal with but we looked composed so I’m a bit disappointed that we haven’t got over the line but I’m not disappointed with our performance because as I said to the boys before the game, and I said to them at training on Thursday, I need you to man up, start winning your battles against your opposition, give us a bit more strength, maybe playing a little bit more of what this time of the year suits.”

“Probably, from a neutral’s point of view, a draw is a fair result. St Albans might have felt that they could have gone on and won it and I’m a bit disappointed that we haven’t gone on to win with a clean sheet.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.