Defeat at Dorking Wanderers ended Welling United’s two game winning run. After the match Kevin Watson, the Wings’ Assistant Manager, gave his views.

“I thought we worked our socks off.” he said. “I thought we looked very organised. A central midfielder had to go in goal. He’s never been in goal in his life and even if Rhys (Lovett) was in goal, I’m not sure he would have stopped it (the second goal). Brilliant from the lad to flick it over Sammy Cornish’s head and volley it in but to that point, TJ (Bramble)’s gone in goal and all he’s had to do is pick one out of the net and kick two shots away.

“When you’re kicking shots away it’s telling you that they’re not really great attempts on goal. We’ve defended our box well. I honestly thought that once we’d got that goal back, we were going to push and get an equaliser.”

Only three out of Welling’s sixteen at Dorking were at the club last season, so they are still getting to know each other. Watson continued “We are thirteen games in now. Lot’s of new players. We’re beginning to look solid like we’re not going to concede two many goals and we’ve got to build on that, and build our way forward, and start putting the ball in the back of the net.

“We’ve had good chances in the first half today. Chiori (Johnson) put a brilliant ball in and TJ got a bit mixed up. Do I volley it? Do I head it?’, Longy (Elliot Long)’s cut in and hit it, then Chiori’s hit the crossbar so we had three really good chances.

“Second half, we sat in a little bit and I think subconsciously we did it to protect TJ, probably didn’t become an attacking threat as much as we’d like to but I said to Rod (Stringer), hang on in there, you’ll always get a chance. We got it, got back in the game but, unfortunately we couldn’t get over the line and get that equaliser.”

Losing goalkeeper Lovett was a big blow to Welling. Watson said “He was knocked spark out. You can’t really see what happened from where we are. I honestly think it was just a collision between the two. Their boy’s got a black eye, I’m pretty sure he’ll have a headache in the morning and Rhys was knocked out so he’s got to come off the pitch. Not one of our boys has ever played in goal, which is unusual, and he put his hand up, TJ bless him, and he’s gone in and done a really good job.”

Concussion protocol means that Lovett will have a spell of not playing. Watson confirmed “I think that it may be longer than a week, it might be two weeks, but he certainly isn’t going to be available on Tuesday or next Saturday, that’s for sure. He broke his finger as well, that happened before he got knocked out.

“Rhys has got high standards and the header back to him, he should’ve smothered and he spilt it and when he’s gone to block the cross, I think it’s pulled his finger back. It never rains but it pours. We’ve come out with a two-one defeat, we’ve got a central midfielder who had to go in goal and you’re goalkeeper looks like he’s going to be out for a couple of weeks.”

Although Welling had a makeshift goalkeeper, Dorking were unable to pepper him with crosses and didn’t win a single corner in the second period. “We stopped crosses. I think they put in one to Prior that was headed wide, and that was it. We kept them out and defended resolutely.

“They had a few in the first half, the boy with the left foot had really good quality. He wasn’t really trying to whip the skin off the ball. He was just clipping it and leaving it in an area and you’ve got to deal with it but I thought we defended admirably. I don’t think Rhys had much to do while he was on the pitch and TJ certainly didn’t so it’s a little bit of an opportunity missed today, I think.”

Images courtesy of Dave Budden