There was little to choose between promotion chasing Macclesfield Town and relegation threatened Welling United at the Wings’ Park View Road in the final game before the busy Christmas period.
However an early Kristian Dennis strike left the visitors one place below the play-off zone and Welling one place above the bottom four.
As much as Welling enjoyed more of the possession, they didn’t have the quality up front to test Shwan Jalal seriously in the Macclesfield goal.
Matt McEntegart, Welling’s Head Coach, admitted as much “I just think today we got ourselves into a lot of good positions but we didn’t have the quality to take it any further than that.”
“That was a problem that we had earlier in the season when we went through a bit of a barren spell results wise. We were playing some good stuff, we got into some good positions, but we didn’t have the quality to really capitalise on it.”
“It’s something we really need to work on, and need to be better at. No doubt about it.”
Danny Whittaker had already given Welling a scare when Dennis fired home from 20 yards via the far post.
Reece Harris had a shot well saved before George Porter headed Ben Jefford’s corner over after Kieron St. Aimie’s run had made space.
Michael McEntegart managed to push away George Pilkington’s header and then made a great save from David Fitzpatrick.
Barney Williams and Sam Corne were off target as Welling came back before Ben Jefford almost caught Jalal out with a cross that he was grateful to tip over.
After the break, Welling continued to search out an equaliser and Corne headed over Jefford’s cross,
Porter came even closer when his header from a Harris centre clattered the post.
St. Aimie was replaced by Tashan Adeyinka, but to no avail and although they strung together nearly twenty passes, there was no penetration.
Michael Bakare came on for Harry Lee as Welling went for the extra striker and he burst through immediately before seeing his effort gathered by Jalal.
They did not really threaten again and the Silkmen saw out the remaining time without alarm.
Wings’ manager, Loui Fazakerley, also bemoaned his team’s finishing problems. “They (Macclesfield) didn’t play very well but they punished us for a mistake. They’ve got players that can punish mistakes and they’ve got end product and quality. We got ourselves in good positions, we had some half chances and we didn’t take the opportunities.”
He will need to pick his team up quickly ahead of the busy festive period starting on Boxing Day at home to Dover Athletic.
Welling United: McEntegart, Williams, Jefford, Lee (Bakare 79), Chambers, Lokko, Porter, Corne, St. Aimie (Adeyinka 55), Wellard (Vidal 68), Harris.
Unused substitutes: King, Nortey.
Macclesfield Town: Jalal, Halls, Fitzpatrick, Cowan, Pilkington, Whitaker, Rowe, Lewis, Holroyd, Dennis (Turnball 87), Sampson.
Unused substitutes: Branagan, Diagne, Churchman, Sutherland.
Referee: Richard Martin
Assistants: Ollie Davies and Neil Morrison
4th Official: Gary Maskell
Welling star man: Harry Lee
Attendance: 577
Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.