After a rough end to 2021, Welling United started 2022 with a well deserved win at promotion chasing Dulwich Hamlet leaving manager Peter Taylor delighted.

After the match, Taylor said “I’m delighted. We haven’t been doing as well as we should have done in the last three or four matches. We got a bit of a spanking against Maidstone.”

“I think that it has done the players a bit of good because we had a very, very strong meeting the next time we met and I think it showed today how much it meant to them to try and get a result. We knew that we were playing against a very, very good team so we had to be at it.”

The Welling team is young, especially the defensive unit, and Taylor is happy with their progression “They are learning all the time.” he said.

“They are a very good bunch to work with. The more it stays nil-nil that’s when I think at times we can get belief to go on and do well so they’re the little things that we can get stronger at. I couldn’t be more happy at the performance of the players. They worked as a team, they shouted at each other as a team and they responded in the perfect way.”

A one-nil score-line wasn’t a true reflection on just how well Welling played against a top six side. Taylor continued “I think that Dulwich are an outstanding team. They’ve got one of the best squads in the division and for us to come and match them was very good. I’m disappointed that we didn’t go on and get another goal or two in the second half because we had the opportunities but we didn’t take them.”

Despite the large crowd, the Welling performance was so good that the crowd was silenced to such an extent that the players could be heard. “I think that they may have been a little bit surprised about the way that we performed.” said Taylor.

“They might have turned up thinking that it was going to be an easy game for them to win. I think the players showed that they deserved some respect from the opposition supporters. Nearly three and a half thousand is lovely. That’s the place to go and do well.”

In the second half Welling created a number of clear cut chances but scored just the one goal and that was a slight negative as far as Taylor was concerned “I’m pleased that we created them, disappointed that we didn’t take them but overall I don’t think that there have been many games this season where we have created as much as this and you’re talking about playing against one of the top teams so that’s got to be one of the positives and now we’ve got to make sure that we have the same attitude against St Albans next week.”

“I always get nervous because you want to keep the one goal lead. There were a couple of times that I thought that we let it drop and let through balls through us but I think that the shape of the team in the second half was good and I thought that with Dulwich having the wind it made it more difficult for them to go play a ball that wasn’t going to go straight to Jack (Sims, Welling’s goalkeeper).”

“It’s a great start to the new year and everybody’s smiling.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.