Josh Redfearn scored the only goal as Welling United claimed an important home three points against Bath City. After the game, Welling manager Rod Stringer gave his thoughts to Mark Doig.

“I’m over the moon for the players and the rest of the staff because it was a tough one today.” he said.

“We knew that they’re a good opposition. They’re in a false position in my eyes, they’ve got a lot of good players, but where we’ve now made the squad a little bit smaller we’re having to try and make sure that we’ve got some of the players up to speed.

“Towards the end, you could see that the legs were going a little bit there and we had to make changes but overall that is a really good performance. It’s a performance that you want to have at home. We had a lot of it last season. It was great to see where the squad’s got smaller, they all know that they’ve got to step up and at this time of year, the pitches are getting a bit tough and we’ve had to dig deep and I thought the boys did that from start to finish.”

He continued “We had a system today that we went with and I thought we played it really well and even people that haven’t played it, who are probably a little bit alien to certain positions, I thought their work ethic and everything was fantastic and I think that was a big reason why we’ve got over the line with a clean sheet and a one-nil win.”

Despite having gone over two weeks without a game, the Wings have gone four games undefeated. Stringer said “It’s a mini run. We’re still a work in progress, when you’re working with a squad like us today with four (fit) subs, for us to beat Bath with fifteen players, it’s blinding. We could have had another one or two and so could have they but we kept a clean sheet against a side that has got centre forwards up top with (Ben) Seymour, who they bought from Torquay, and Scott Wilson who scored against us down there, they are seasoned forwards.”

Josh Redfearn scored the only goal and Stringer is happy with his progress. He confirmed “He’s trying to get up to speed. I don’t know what his pre-season or when he finished when he was playing in Australia. He isn’t only a goal scorer, he’s a focal point for us where we can try and get it up to him and work off some second balls which, I thought, we haven’t really had this year.

“And then you had Martell (Taylor-Crossdale) who hasn’t had a lot of football, and you had Zain (Walker) out there who hasn’t had a lot of football to be fair. They’ve run their socks off for us and I was really pleased. This win today is just another three points to the cause but we’ve still got a long way to go.”

Rhys Lovett made two brilliant saves in the first half. Stringer added “I thought Rhys was outstanding, first half. They put it in on us, second half continuously, continuously and we stood up to it. I thought the midfield was engaged with that and then when we could break, we had some good players that got up us the pitch and it was exciting. Even the supporters today, there was a real spring to their step as well.”

Although promotion and relegation isn’t decided in December, Stringer knew that this was an important match. He admitted “Before the game I thought that today was a real big one for us. It was a six-pointer where we both are in the league. I really don’t think that Bath will still be down there come the end of it.

“I think they’ve got too many good players for that but we have to take pats on the back today. We’ve got it right. The players have earned that is they’re the ones who went out there and put it into practice, Every man from start to finish just did that ugly stuff without the ball. “We won a lot of first and seconds.

“It’s not conducive to playing loads of nice football, it’s not the type of pitch for that, it’s not the time of year. It’s a battling time of the season, especially where we are in the league and we’ve got to dig deep. We’ve got players coming back. Granty (Anthony Grant) was suspended today. Our squad’s smaller which is fine, but now we’ve got a chance to get Chiori (Johnson) back.

“He was on the bench today but he wasn’t going to go on but hopefully they’ll get a training session into him over the next Tuesday and Thursday and give us a bit more depth in the squad ready for Salisbury away which is tough. Then we’ve got a big one here against my old club, Chelmsford, and it’s one that I’m really looking forward to.”

Images courtesy of Dave Budden