It took a late Colchester equaliser to thwart Welling United in their final pre-season friendly.

However, it was a very encouraging performance for the Wings against a youthful Us side ahead of their upcoming F.A. Cup tie at Sheppey United.

Colchester’s goalkeeper was the busier of the custodians and made his first save from a drive by a midfielder that he had to turn around the post. However it wasn’t all one way and a visiting striker headed wide from the right back’s cross.

Dipo Akinyemi was taken out by the Colchester goalkeeper as he looked to round him outside the area and might have been dismissed had it been a competitive game but he managed to keep the resultant free kick out. After that, Welling had a string of chances and a number of corners but somehow the scores were still level at the break.

However, they did go ahead five minutes after the interval. Anthony Cook was pulled back in midfield but still managed to send Akinyemi away. The referee played a good advantage and the Welling striker fired home via the far post.

Deflected shots and good saves kept the Wings at bay until four minutes from time when a soft foul was conceded in the penalty area. The Welling academy goalkeeper, who had just come on, saved the spot kick but it came back to the taker and he fired home the rebound.

Brad Quinton, Welling’s manager, said after the game “We made some substitutions late in the game just to hold people back for Saturday’s game and we started to get a bit disorganised. A few boys were tiring and we gave away a penalty again.

“We saved a penalty again and we don’t follow up so for me that’s upsetting. We’re talking five minutes that really, really were sloppy. I can look at it and say we played another good opposition. Colchester brought a very good under 20s and fair play to them for doing that on a Monday night.”

He continued “We had a lot of chances again in the first half. I still think that we should be hitting the back of the net a lot more. We need to finish our dinner. As much as we say that we need to put the ball in the right area, which we did, we had eight or ten chances in the game, I think, and people not being in the right area was a bit frustrating. But it was a positive performance and I’m pleased with what the boys did today.”

Now, Quinton has to wait for news on what compensation Welling will receive should the league season start with games behind closed doors. Quinton said “Every National League club is going to find out on Tuesday or Wednesday on what’s going on with funds from the government or grants etcetera. This season is going to be weird for every player, every fan not being in. It’s a weird situation.

“You need to get the right core of players in and we’re 80/85% sure of what players we need. We will bring some loans in who are going to make the squad better and it’s okay. I would like to have finished with a lot more goals if you want my honest opinion but overall I thought that we were solid with the two trialists we had tonight.”

The academy players who took part looked good too. A late substitute looked comfortable immediately. “I was impressed. The boy did really well and Bradley (Ryan) was good too. I thought that he had an exceptional ninety minutes. He’s a good talent  We moved him in a couple of different positions tonight, and that’s what I like doing with my players, I’ll always improve them in different positions and then they’ll adapt.”

Images courtesy of Dave Budden