Tonbridge Angels 1-1 Welling United - We can compete against the top teams, says Tommy Warrilow

TONBRIDGE ANGELS  1-1  WELLING UNITED
Blue Square Bet South
Saturday 3^rd December 2011
Paul Parkinson reports from Longmead Stadium

Tonbridge Angels and Welling United emerged from a hard-fought Kent derby with honours even, one in which the visitors’ manager, Jamie Day, admitted that his side were lucky to get the point that maintains their second place in the Blue Square Bet (Conference) South.  

Former Tonbridge Angels’ defender, Jack Parkinson’s fifth minute own goal was cancelled out by the in-form Andy Pugh’s seventeenth goal of the campaign, but although Welling United battled hard to survive the Angels’ late onslaught, neither side really tested the opposition’s goalkeeper sufficiently to claim victory.

After exiting the FA Carlsberg Trophy on Tuesday night to Bishop’s Stortford, Angels’ boss Tommy Warrilow was pleased with his team’s response.  

He said: “The main thing for me was the performance after Tuesday. When you lose a game, everyone blames the system, but I said to the boys Tuesday wasn’t about systems, it was about people not doing their jobs.  

“Yet again, we’ve seen today that we can compete with the teams at the top.  I’m a bit gutted that we haven’t come away with the three points, but I hope, in a way, that getting one point hasn’t hurt us long-term.”

“At half-time, at one-all, it was a fairly open affair, but after the second half, I’m a little disappointed to come away with a point to be honest.  We had a little chat about them believing in themselves more.  I don’t think it’s about ability, more about the boys getting their heads right.  Sometimes we pay teams too much respect, when we should be fighting for every ball, appealing for everything, and we’re still a little naïve in some ways.  

“It’s not a football thing, it’s about the boys’ character, and in the second half, we’ve gone out and shown it.”

Welling United boss, Day, agreed with his counterpart, saying, “I don’t think we deserved to win the game.  Andy Pugh had a good chance after he scored when we created one or two chances, but I feel they’ve probably had the better chances in the second half and I’m happy to get the point to keep our run going.  That’s the quality that Andy brings us, if he gets a chance he sticks it away.”

“You want to come away from home and keep a clean sheet, but if you can’t, you want to hold out for as long as possible.  It was disappointing to go a goal behind, but credit the boys, we’ve got back in the game.  You can’t win every game, so I think we ground out a good point today.

“I was a little disappointed with the lack of quality today, and that’s the first time for a while so it’s not too much to worry about.  We played ok, but the final ball let us down.  You can’t be perfect all the time.””

From the start, neither sides defence looked comfortable with balls being playing into their box, and it look timely interceptions to keep the scoreline level in the opening minutes.  

First Tonbridge’s Jon Heath got in before Luis Cumbers could threaten Lee Worgan’s goal, then Parkinson, the Welling skipper, headed Kayne McLaggen’s shot off the line, after the loanee from Bristol Rovers had beaten Dan Thomas to a poor defensive header.

Tonbridge took the lead in the 5th minute with another cross into the Welling area, as Parkinson, under pressure from McLaggen, deflected Lee Browning’s cross into his own net.  

Warrilow was especially happy about the goal, extolling some of the work his side have put in during training sessions.

He said: “We’ve put a good ball in the box, and made some good runs.  That shows the importance of making those runs, it has caught the defender’s eye.””

Welling equalised in the 18th minute with a move started and finished by Pugh.

The Welling forward put a dangerous cross into the area from the left wing, from which Cumbers’ and Lee Clarke’s headers kept the pressure on.  A poor clearance put the ball to the feet of Andy Sambrook, whose pinpoint cross picked out Pugh at the back post, and Pugh’s instant control and shot beat Worgan low to the keeper’s right hand side.

Both side’s leading scorers, Frannie Collin for Tonbridge, and Pugh, had chances to put their side ahead as the half moved on, but Collin miskicked Scott Kinch’s cross, then Pugh tamely shot straight at Worgan, after he had turned past Ben Judge.

Just before half-time, Pugh fired a 25-yard effort from an acute angle that almost deceived Worgan at his right hand post, following a good dribble from Loick Pires, who otherwise had a relatively quiet game.

Welling had the first chance of the second half, with Judge clearing Cumbers’ effort off the line after good work from Clarke, but apart from Cumbers’ header in the closing minutes, this would be the only clear sight of goal.

As both manager’s admitted, the match turned into a midfield battle, that the hosts edged.  

Warrilow said: “We knew the game had to be won in midfield and I like to think the boys in there all did their shift today.  They got stuck in, won the ball and marked well when we didn’t have the ball.”

Day agreed, adding, “This time of year, I think you’ll see a lot of midfield battles.  I thought the pitch was good today, but over the next couple of months, if the weather turns, we’ve got to be prepared to battle.  We want to play our football, but we’ve got to compete and be prepared to grind out a few results.””

As they gained the upper hand. Tonbridge produced the best move of the match on 59 minutes, as Joe Healy came to Welling’s rescue to hook Browning’s header off the line.  

Browning had started the move before releasing Jake Beecroft, who tormented young Welling full-back Jordan Johnson all day, and moved the ball onto Collin.  Collin’s cross found Browning unmarked at the back post and his header over Thomas seemed destined for the back of the net until Healy’s intervention.

Six minutes later, the other Bristol Rovers loanee, Michael Boateng, set off on a run from his own half, breaking through two tackles before setting up McLaggen, whose left foot shot squeezed past the left hand post.

Browning had another effort on 72 minutes, collecting Sonny Miles’ long ball, cutting inside Sambrook, but curling his effort straight at Thomas.

Collin had three good chances to win the game in the closing 15 minutes.  First, following a crunching challenge between Tim Olorunda and Sambrook, that left the Welling defender limping, Collin fired his free-kick high into the North stand.  

Next, after a one-two with Kinch, the forward hit a skidding effort at Thomas, and finally in stoppage time, a cute curling 20 yard effort from another free-kick skimmed the top of the Welling goal.

Warrilow closed by saying, “We have a great competition for places now.  I thought Kayne (McLannon) had a fantastic game, but in the last 10 minutes I wanted to see what Mikel’s (Suarez) aerial game could bring to the table, and with his first header, Frannie was in and I still don’t know what the ref has blown up for.  I didn’t want to disrupt it, but it was a positive move because I wanted to go and win the game.  

“At the end, Frannie said they switched a couple of players in the wall, so he changed his free-kick.  He’s disappointed he didn’t work the keeper more, but the guy’s made a couple of good saves and had one hooked off the line.”

Tonbridge Angels:  Lee Worgan, Michael Boateng, Jon Heath, Tim Olorunda, Ben Judge, Sonny Miles, Jake Beecroft, Scott Kinch, Kayne McLaggon (Mikel Suarez 80), Frannie Collin, Lee Browning.
Subs: Chris Henry, Robbie Kember, Danny Walder, Joe Hagan.

Goal: Jack Parkinson (own goal) 5

Booked: Ben Judge 19, Michael Boateng 90

Welling United:  Dan Thomas, Andy Sambrook, Jordan Johnson, Jamie Day, Anthony Acheampong, Jack Parkinson, Joe Healy (Ryan Dolby 76), Lee Clarke, Luis Cumbers, Andy Pugh, Loick Pires.
Subs: Ben Martin, Tamer Tuna, Malachi Hudson.

Goal: Andy Pugh 18

Booked: Jordan Johnson 15, Luis Cumbers 61, Andy Sambrook 74, Anthony Acheampong 82

Attendance: 631
Referee: Mr Ben Knight (Waterlooville, Hampshire)
Assistants: Mr William Harvey (Ramsey, Cambridgeshire) and Mr Colin Reeve (Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire)