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Tuesday 4 August

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Saturday 15 September 2007	CONFERENCE SOUTH
Welling United 1 Hayes & Yeading United 2 Coleman 25 Hendry 50 Gregory 52 500

1 Clark Masters   2 Leon Solomon   3 Robbie Ryan   4 Richard Carpenter   5 Chris Moore 6 Tony Sinclair   7 Lloyd Blackman   8 Neil Smith   9 Fabian Quintyn   10 Omari Coleman   11 Daniel Maxwell   12 Michael Johnson (11, 84 mins)   13 Jamie Turner   14 Orlando Smith (7, 58 mins)   15 Adam Cottrell (8, h-t)   16 Stuart Nethercott

Referee Mr. A. Child Linesmen Mr. N. Wilde Mr. S. Finnigan

1 Delroy Preddie   2 Danny Allen-Page   3 Peter Collins   4 Tom Cadmore   5 Nevin Saroya   6 Steven Gregory   7 Steve Perkins 8 Will Hendry   9 Simon Martin   10 Miles Jones   11 Toby Little   12 Josh Scott (10, 73 mins)   13 John Peacock   14 James Mulley (8, 88 mins)   15 James Edgerley   16 Liam Collins (6, 56 mins)

Welling manager Neil Smith made one change to his starting XI from the defeat at Lewes. The injured Sam Keevil was replaced by 17 year old striker Fabian Ouintyn who had just joined on loan from Colchester United. The home bench consisted of Jamie Turner, Steve May, Adam Cottrell, Orlando "Mucu" Smith and Michael "Magic" Johnson.

The Wings started brightly with leading scorer Omari Coleman firing a shot on target in the opening minute. He then latched on to a fortunate ricochet and shot over when he perhaps should have tested the keeper.

Welling had started with a 4-3-1-2 formation with Blackman operating behind the front two whilst Hayes & Yeading opted for a 3-5-2 formation with the flowing locks of ex-Wing Steve Perkins anchoring the midfield. It was the visitors who enjoyed most of the early possession in midfield which forced the home side to revert to a more customary 4-4-2 formation.

Despite not having recorded a league victory so far this season it was the visitors who looked more comfortable and were causing the home defence some problems. Rather surprisingly it was in the air that the Wings appeared to be struggling but the away side (wearing the Welling away kit) squandered some good opportunities. First a far post header was directed straight at Clark Masters in the home goal and then the away side failed to hit the target with two more headers.

Against the run of play the Wings struck first. Coleman chased a long ball down the right, cut back across the area and fired back into the bottom corner for a fine individual goal. This didn’t appear to galvanise the home team who were still playing second fiddle to the visitors. New boy Quintyn was showing some nice touches on his debut and almost forced a second goal but his close-range effort was scrambled clear.

As in previous games the Wings emerged onto the pitch well before the start of the second half. There was one change to the side with Neil Smith replacing himself with Adam Cottrell. Their bodies might have been out there but their minds very clearly were not. Having conceded early second half goals to Bognor and Dorchester in previous home games, the Wings went one better this time around and conceded twice in the opening minutes of the half.

Firstly an innocuous looking cross from the right reached Hendry whose poke towards goal flicked the leg of Sinclair and found the corner of the net. Then a headed clearance fell to Gregory who took aim from fully 30 yards and looped an excellent shot into the net. It was a great strike but he had been granted the freedom of Park View Road to take aim before shooting.

Still the home side looked very disjointed with no apparent direction on or off the pitch. The ineffective Blackman was replaced by Orlando Smith and was less than pleased to be taken off - his petulant reaction would have been embarrassing had it been my four year old.

The visitors still looked the more likely side and only a point-blank save by Masters prevented the Wings from falling further behind. The only way back for Welling seemed to be through Coleman who hit the side netting with one effort and then forced the keeper to shovel one unconvincingly around the post. Johnson came on very late on for Maxwell but the visitors held on comfortably until the final whistle which was greeted with a chorus of boos from the home faithful.

Now whilst losing to the bottom-of-the-table side is never good it was the manner of the defeat that was most alarming. The home team seemed devoid of ideas and organisation and were outthought, outfought and comprehensively outplayed by a team that arrived at Park View Road without a win to their name in the opening seven league games.

I actually watched two Welling United games on Saturday. The supporters team travelled half way round London early that morning to take on their Kingstonian counterparts and put in a good performance, showing pride and commitment to emerge with a comprehensive victory. Most of those lads then travelled back to watch their team in the afternoon who turned in a performance that can only be described as drivel. On the basis of those two games I’m not convinced that some of the afternoon team would get a game in the morning team...

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