There was more disappointment for Welling United as they were beaten at home by Weston-super-Mare. Following the final whistle Rod Stringer spoke to Mark Doig to reflect on the home defeat.

After the game, Welling manager Rod Stringer gave his opinion. “I wouldn’t call it a game of two halves but I thought that we were excellent in the first half. I thought that we should probably have been more than one goal in front for some of the football we played and possession we had but we then, against the run of play, conceded a free kick, they score, which I thought was poor defending from ourselves, then all of a sudden the linesman from about sixty or seventy yards, decided to be a hero and put a flag up to say that he saw a handball in the box which their supporters that was opposite it said that it was outside the box.

“So we go into half time two-one down and we said ‘listen, the next goal is important and we can’t go down to three-one’ and I thought that we were doing okay until (the next goal). I think that we should have defended it from the top. I thought the ball came in too easily, one of the forwards should have got across and stopped him from putting it in behind us but that left him (Luke Coulson) twenty yards from home and he took his chance and drew Ryhs (Lovett) on a one on one. That was disappointing. It was all about the third goal today. If we’d got the next goal and made it two-two it would have been a bit even Stevens for the second half but the third goal after probably twenty minutes of the second half killed us.”

Stringer felt that this season’s Weston team is different to the footballing sides that he has seen over the recent seasons. “We had to come up the hill in the second half, and they’re coming down the hill and all they did was every time we built up a bit of momentum they cleared their lines and put it in behind us so then you’ve got to restart again. You’ve got to try and get yourself playing and get yourself back up the pitch.

“To be fair to Weston they just dug in and did the ugly stuff well which is what you have to do in this division. I don’t think they’re as good as Weston teams I’ve seen over the years but I certainly think they look more of a complete outfit for what this league is all about and they don’t concede a lot of goals and they’ve always got goal threats.”

There have been personnel changes at the club and Stringer used all five of his substitutes in the second half.

He explained “There were tired legs out there and now you can use five from five substitutes. The players that we let go, I think today you definitely saw a more energised performance from what we witnessed at Boreham Wood, that’s for sure. I think that (Alex) Lankshear did well, Paul Osew came on, we put (Mitchel) Bergkamp on to give us a little bit more physicality at times because in the first half we were very effective but in the second half, up the hill, we got a bit too long, we got a bit detached so I thought that if we brought him on he might give us a little more strength and power in that area. Martell (Taylor-Crossdale) came on and impacted the game, got down the sides, had a penalty shout that wasn’t given so I thought that all the subs that came on gave us something.”

He concluded by saying “Today a big decision went against us but we’ve just got to lick our wounds and go again on Tuesday at Worthing.”

Images courtesy of Dave Budden