It took an own goal for Boreham Wood to defeat Welling United in a pre-season friendly at Park View Road.

In a tight game with few chances, it was an unfortunate moment for the trialist defender to turn it into his own net after Dan Wilkes had pushed away a Matt Rhead penalty only for it to be returned into the box. As Wilkes got to his feet it struck the defender and flew into the goal.

Former Wing Jamal Fyfield had the first chance of the game when he headed over from close range before Anthony Cook had a chance for Welling that he drilled straight at goalkeeper Nathan Ashmore.

Another chance went Welling’s way when a trialist just failed to get on the end of a corner before the Wings had a strong shout for a penalty for handball in the area. Lionel Ainsworth then collected a loose clearance and advanced before firing beyond the far post.

Another trialist spun and shot just over before a Marcel Barrington drive was blocked by Tom Champion in the unmentionables causing him a few moments of discomfort.

After the break, Fyfield put a free kick from a dangerous position over the bar before a clumsy challenge in the area presented Boreham Wood with the penalty that led to the goal.

Fyfield got himself sent off for a bad and needless foul with twenty minutes remaining and was given no sympathy by his manager who gave him a stern dressing down as he disappeared down the tunnel but Welling failed to take advantage and only a blocked shot from Stefan Ilic, after Dipo Akinyemi pulled back, threatened the visitors.

Bradley Quinton, Welling’s manager, gave his thoughts after the game. “I wasn’t happy about the second half, last twenty five minutes, having them go down to ten men, us not moving the ball and some of them looking like rabbits in the headlights.” He said. “It was quite weird really because they want to be showing me things going into next week.

“Overall, to lose to a National League team by an own goal from a penalty save following up,  apart from that, they’re not really causing us any issues. On the other side, for us, I’m not happy because we’re not hitting the back of the net so I gave them the information that I felt they needed to know today.”

Lots of substitutions had been made in that final period but the Welling manager didn’t feel that it could be used as an excuse. “When you train as hard as you do with me I expect when you’re not playing or not starting to come on and to start like you want to be playing week in and week out. That was me as a player. I gave everything. I expect all my players to come on and work hard for one another.

“I think the first forty-five minutes we were exceptional and to set a tone and to set a level of what I expect, they were told that, the subs, before the game and at half time. ‘When you do come on you need to be performing like we did in the first forty-five minutes.’ “

Quinton continued “Whether you’re happy or whether you’re not happy, I’m not saying that is the case, when you’re not playing, you want to be giving the manager a headache yet some of them are not giving me a headache and I’ll have to deal with that and manage what I expect from my players.

“Whether they need to go, or whether they need to go and play dual reg elsewhere, that’s down for me now. Overall an exceptional first forty-five minutes, ten, fifteen minutes in the second half okay, but the last twenty-five, thirty not acceptable for me.”

Images courtesy of Dave Budden