Relegation threatened Welling United’s hopes of escape were dealt a serious blow with defeat at home to Barrow.
Four consecutive home league defeats have plunged them deep into the drop zone.
They could have gone behind in the first minute but survived a goalmouth scramble. Then Marek Rodak made the first of his many saves.
Ben Jefford created an opportunity for Welling with a low cross that found George Porter at the near post. Although the Wings’ striker didn’t make the cleanest of connections, it still took Joel Dixon two attempts to keep it out.
Andy Cook, a threat throughout, had a header tipped over. Then Rodak made a fantastic save but it came out to Simon Grand who blasted over from close range.
27 minutes had passed when the deadlock was broken. Welling were awarded their first penalty for over a year when Kadell Daniel was brought down by Grand. Xavier Vidal stepped up and unluckily for Dixon, he guessed the right way to go only for Vidal’s kick to come back off the post, hit him, and fly into the net.
Rodak almost created a second for Welling. Having pushed Danny Pilkington’s free kick round for a corner he then punched Pilkington’s corner out inviting Porter to break. He made good progress down the right wing before firing across the face of goal just out of the reach of Sahr Kabba.
Having won a host of corners, Barrow made one count on the stroke of half time when Danny Livesey met Pilkington’s delivery with a firm header inside the far post.
Early in the second period, just as he had when the teams met in Barrow, Cook netted when offside.
Daniel then created panic in the Barrow defence with a mazy run but could not get the ball out from under his feet to get in a shot. It broke out to Ricky Wellard but his shot was deflected wide for a corner.
Back came Barrow and Harry Osborne cleared off the line before Rodak saved from David Symington.
Another corner gave Barrow the opportunity to take the lead. Again Pilkington found Livesey but this time he headed across goal to allow Ashley Grimes to head home.
Two more Rodak saves kept Welling in the game but they should have been dead and buried when Cook was given the freedom of the penalty area only to fire over when he should have done much better.
The hosts looked bereft of ideas and apart from a Daniel free kick that Dixon punched away, they created little.
After the match, United manager Loui Fazakerley admitted that they fell apart in the second half. “It’s a game that we wanted to win. It’s definitely a hard one to take especially when you do so well to go one-nil up and you have the first half we had and to lose to two set pieces.
“It’s very, very frustrating. You can take all the positives in the world but we have to be stronger. We have to be more resolute.We have to be able to go on and hold on to win that game. At least we’ve got to be able to come away with a draw. It’s very, very disappointing. It’s a tough one to take.”
Despite the bad run of recent results, Head Coach Matthew McEntegart still believes that the management team are still theright people for the job. “We’re tough people and I will never give up.I truly believe that when you see real characters in people is when times are tough.
This game is so easy when you’re winning, but when you’re not winning, it feels like your at the bottom of the pile. We are working our absolute backsides off.”
Welling United: Welling United: Rodak, Williams (Bakare 81), Jefford, Lee, Osborne, Chambers, Porter, Vidal, Kabba, Wellard (Harris 68), Daniel.
Unused substitutes: McEntegart, Nortey, St. Aimie.
Barrow: Dixon, Cowperthwaite, Symington, Parry, Livesey, Grand, Wilmer-Anderton, Grimes (S. Williams 88), J. Williams, Cook, Pilkington.
Unused substitutes: Harvey, Walker, Mellor, Newby..
Referee: Robert Whitton
Assistants: George Sprague and Carl Pearse
4th Official: Thomas Hancock
Welling star man: Marek Rodak
Attendance: 542
Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.