Victory at promotion chasing Slough Town ended Welling United’s barren run. Rod Stringer’s illness meant that Welling assistant manager, Kevin Watson, took up the reins from the dug out.

After the match he spoke of the events. “Really, really pleased” he said “I just said to them in the dressing room, if you think you’re going to come to Slough and have an easy time of it after you go three-nil up, you’re going to be very much mistaken.

“We knew that they were going to come at us, but we stood up to it. I just said to them ‘the harder you work in any form of life, but certainly in football, the luckier you’ll get’ and we rode our luck at times today but I also thought that at times we defended brilliantly and with a little bit more luck, and a little bit more quality on the counter attack, we probably should have had another couple of goals.

He continued “Yes, we’ve gone three-nil up, yes, everyone probably thinks it’s done, I had to tell a couple of boys on our bench ‘It’s not done yet’. I’ve been in the game long enough to know that it they get one back, they’ll get their tails will be up, and they were, and they had a right go at us.

Goalkeeper Rhys Lovett returned after injury and made a couple of great saves. “He has been a big miss.” admitted Watson “And that’s nothing against Daniel (Jinadu) and the other guy (Jordan Gillmore) that came in and played for us, but you’ve got to bear in mind that Rhys has been with us all season, the back four or back three are used to him, used to his voice behind, his organisation and when I can hear him from the dug-out you know that the individuals in front of him can hear it as well. Really delighted to have him back.”

Josh Redfearn marked his full debut with a goal, but Watson was pleased with his overall performance. He said “I thought that he was outstanding in the first half in terms of didn’t give the centre halves any time on the ball, any header that he went up for, it wasn’t coming straight back at us even if it was a little ricochet or a deflection. It was dropping down and our midfield appeared to be picking up a lot of those bits and piece.

“I thought that the endeavour from every single player, and the willingness to run for each other, I could hear voices today organising each other, I thought was outstanding.”

There was a change of formation for the Wings and Watson explained “We knew that their threat would be (David) Ogbonna and (Francis) Armartey. It always is. We knew their centre forward (Stavi Spasov) was strong, holds it up, and tries to play them in so we thought there’d be more protection with a four.

“We had a chat this morning, Rod and myself, and thought that would probably be the best thing to do and all in all, alright they got through inside in the first few minutes, they hit the side netting, there weren’t too many other opportunities. We defended well, the midfield picked up a lot of bits and we looked solid and organised which is really pleasing.”

Both Ogbonna and Armartey were substituted, a testament to how well Welling dealt with the threat. Watson beamed “I thought that Lanks (Alex Lankshear) and Stath (Maxwell Statham) were terrific today. Stath had to keep dealing, second half’ with Scotty Davies’s diagonal balls which he’s played at a very high level. He still passes the ball as well, if not better, than anyone in this division. So he had to keep dealing with pinpoint deliveries.”

Although Welling came under some pressure after the second goal, they withstood it and looked comfortable for the last ten minutes plus nine and a half additional minutes. Watson was delighted, stating “I thought we managed the game well, and the last ten minutes when you think we’re going to come absolutely under siege, it didn’t really come around like that.

“We’ve come to a tough place to get a result, today, and got over the line. I just finished off by saying to the players ‘enjoy your evening. We’re back to work Monday morning to prepare for Tonbridge (Angels at home) on Tuesday and this result will mean, not little but less if we don’t go and get a result on Tuesday night.”

After the derby game with the Angels, Welling visit Aveley on Friday evening. Watson confirmed “Us and Aveley decided we would rather play on Friday night but we’ve got the game on Tuesday first of all to deal with. We’ll take stock after that, see how we get on and get a team and a squad ready for Friday.”

Images courtesy of Dave Budden