A strong and solid performance from City eventually overcame some stubborn resistance from Welling Town, meaning once again City remain top of the table going into another week.

A penalty and two superb strikes deservedly left the visitors with a clear win and the points at a rather chilly and grey Erith Community Stadium and sets things up nicely for the first v second match at Forest Hill Park coming up next weekend.

Although the early attacking forays came mainly from City, the first direct strike on goal came in the fifth minute when Welling’s Harry Mark saw his distance effort fly well over the City bar. The game was busy and a lot of football was being played but there wasn’t too much for either keeper to be concerned about. Cameron Sanghera in the home goal was the first to be called on making a fairly straightforward stop from Mo Cham after the striker had initially got in the way of an attempt from Rob Lawrence.  

At the other end, a thirty-yard free-kick from Mark was firmly struck but comfortably cleared the goal and disappeared towards the steeplechase water jump on the running track around the pitch. Liam Hark twice made good defensive interventions to disrupt Welling trying to catch City on the break but the home side generally struggled to get forward with any real threat.

The opening goal arrived in the twenty-sixth minute in slightly unusual circumstances when a shot from City’s Jamie Obianigwe appeared to strike the raised arm of a defender in the box sparking confident claims from City for a penalty. It looked fairly clear from my viewpoint so somewhat surprisingly the referee initially seemed to ignore them, but – and credit to him, he took a couple of moments just to process what had happened and then turned back, blew the whistle and pointed to the spot. This brought protests aplenty from the hosts but after a cursory check with his assistant who was quick to nod in agreement, the decision stood and Cham stepped up to pile the spot-kick home, sending Sanghera the wrong way and give City the 1-0 lead.

Simon Kabamba’s long range effort then soared over the home bar, while Welling’s Neil Spencer then shimmied his way towards the corner of the City box but his resultant ball in was, to be kind – wayward!

Meanwhile, City unsuccessfully had opportunities to pepper the host’s box via a serious of long throws, free-kicks and corners but they rarely threatened their opponent’s goal from any of these situations.

It wasn’t until forty minutes that City keeper Dan Smith was finally called into action, when he made a smart save from Ayodeji Owoeye’s low shot. City had a great chance to double their lead just moments later when a lovely ball forward from Luka Radojevic found Sean Aromolaran and he sprang through on goal only to be denied by Sanghera with a superb spreading and blocking save to prevent what looked likely to be a certain goal!

It was City doing most of the pressing in the run up to the break as another corner and a free-kick both came and went and then finally, just before the half-time whistle blew, Khavarn Williams sent in a low cross aimed at the far post. It eluded Sanghera, but unfortunately no-one was able to make up the ground for what would have been a simple tap-in.

So City went in at the break just the one goal to the good but even so, looking fairly solid and largely untroubled at the back.

City restarted the stronger and had the majority of the attacking play. Another Williams cross was well crafted but zipped low across the Welling box bypassing everybody to go to safety before Lawrence then saw a hurried volley go over the bar. He soon had another effort blocked before seeing a handily placed free-kick deflect off the wall and roll safely through to Sanghera.

Radojevic, Cham and Obianigwe then combined well down the right before the final ball over was well directed but poorly dealt with by keeper and a defender – who seemed to get in each other’s way before it was eventually cleared but could just as easily ended up in the back of the net as be hacked away!

City then made a couple of changes introducing Harry Maher and Zack Jobe and that seemed just to give them a bit more oomph in the build up and they soon combined to set up a goal-of-the-season contender that put City two up.

I’ll try to do it justice, but hopefully the Veo will be out soon to do it better. Maher and Jobe worked the ball down the right before rolling it back to Lawrence prowling around the edge of the box. He controlled it well, took a step and a pause, set himself and then curled a stunning, majestic pearler of a shot into the top corner – giving Sanghera no chance whatsoever and making the score 2-0. It was a lovely goal and brought about a very loud and acclaimed shout of ‘there’s only one Robbie Lawrence’ bellowing out from the near empty stand!!

Maher then powered a distance effort over the bar before a sparkling move involving several City players ended with Rory Sutcliffe bearing down on goal only to be denied by Sanghera with a great last ditch block with his outstretched foot.

With the clocking ticking into the final five minutes, Jobe put the game beyond doubt – not that there had been any – with a super solo strike of his own. Breaking down the right he dodged and jinked his way into the box and with options available and defenders closing him down he looked up and thumped the ball home with some aplomb, for 3-0.

To Welling’s credit they kept plugging away but never really looked likely to trouble the scorers despite having at least one perfect opportunity to do so. With a minute of the ninety remaining, they won a free-kick right on the edge of the City box – just left of centre. After a lot of thought, Elias Ahmed took aim but then crashed it straight at the wall, the ball bouncing away and clear. They managed to recycle and eventually it fell to Ryan Green inside the box but his weak effort was directed straight towards Smith and he had an easy pick-up.

City finished the game on the attack with Maher heavily involved. His late corner was swung into the Welling box but well claimed under pressure by Sanghera before the keeper then made an easy save to deny him directly. The final play of the game saw City with an edge of the box free-kick of their own and they went considerably closer than Welling had just done. Maher took it curling the ball around the wall but also just around the far post as well as Sanghera dived across to cover. The whistle blew straight after thankfully giving everybody the chance to get out of the bitterly cold air and into somewhere warm.

Looking back, at times Welling put up a bit of a challenge but, on reflection, they rarely troubled City and the result never really looked likely to be anything other than an away victory…

Final score: Welling Town 0 Canterbury City 3.