Kentish Football 
Four points over Easter will nail down our play-off place, says Welling United boss Jamie Day
Wednesday 20th April 2011
WELLING UNITED player-manager Jamie Day says four points over Easter will nail down the club’s place in the Blue Square Bet South play-off’s, writes Stephen McCartney.
The Wings suffered an embarrassing 1-0 defeat at basement side St Albans City last weekend - a game which they dominated and had three goals ruled out for offside and efforts cleared off the line before the relegated hosts grabbed the victory through Inih Effiong in the final eleven minutes.
“It’s a game we dominated, had most of the possession and most of the play. We created enough chances but it was one of those days where we didn’t take those chances,” said Day.
“I’m disappointed that we’ve lost. We did enough to win the game and we scored three goals that were disallowed.
“If you look at the stats from the game, I think they had 20% possession, had two attempts on goal and scored one of them.
“It’s disappointing that we’ve lost but we have to get ourselves up and go again.”
Day warned his side against complacency on the eve of the game at Clarence Park, but relegated sides are sometimes difficult to play against.
“I think we dominated the game but again they had nothing to lose. They had a young side, who worked hard and made it difficult.
“We paid the price for being a little bit sloppy with our attacking play.”
Day wants no slip ups when relegation threatened Thurrock visit Park View Road on Good Friday.
The Essex side are third-from-bottom in Blue Square Bet South and are only one point adrift of safety and with only three league games left, they have everything to play for, as do fourth-placed Welling, who are three points clear of sixth-placed Dover Athletic.
Day said: “It’s another one that’s going to be difficult. People look at it and say ‘it should be easy beating Thurrock,’ but they’re going to be fighting for their lives. They want to stay in the Conference South and will be chasing every ball and trying to get a result as a point isn’t good for them.
“Hopefully the game will be open and we have enough quality to make it count.
“It’s not going to be easy, hopefully we can get three points on Friday, which will take us on our way of nailing a play-off place.”
Welling United then travel to champions-elect Braintree Town on Easter Monday.
The Essex side are four points clear of Farnborough, but their style of play isn’t pretty to watch.
“Braintree’s style is a bit different to what we like to play but it’s got them results so they’ll probably argue the way they play is suited to this league and it’s going to get them up as champions,” said Day.
“It’s going to be a difficult game on Monday but we’ve got enough quality in the team to get a result. I think we probably owe them one for beating us in the two games we’ve played against them so we’ll be looking to get something from the game.
“If we can get four points over the weekend I’ll be happy with that and hopefully that will be enough.”
Day was asked what he has learnt from losing to Braintree in the FA Cup at their place and at home in the league.
“I felt in both games we were probably on top but stupid mistakes cost us in both games,” admitted Day.
“When you play the better teams and the top teams you’ve got to cut out the silly mistakes that we’ve made in previous games and take the chances you do get.
“There’s a few lessons that we’ve learnt from those games and other teams this season, so hopefully we can put that right at the weekend.”
Looking towards claiming a deserved play-off berth, Day said, “If we can get a win on Friday, it puts pressure on the teams below us. They’ve all got difficult games.
“It’s on our hands and we need to get back on a winning run in the three games. I personally believe four points will be enough but we don’t really want to go into the last game (away to Basingstoke Town) needing something from it, if we can.”
Welling United have no injury concerns going into Friday’s game.
Visit Welling United’s website: www.wellingunited.com
Welling United v Thurrock
Blue Square Bet South
Good Friday, 22 April 2011
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd