Woking 2-1 Welling United - We've switched off at two vital times, says Jamie Day

WOKING  2-1  WELLING UNITED
Blue Square Bet South
Saturday 17^th March 2012
Paul Parkinson reports from Kingfield Stadium

WELLING UNITED’S slim title aspirations look to have been dealt a terminal blow as Giuseppe Sole’s winner, 12 seconds into the second half, moved Woking 12 points clear of the Wings in the Blue Square Bet (Conference) South table.


 

Jack Parkinson’s 8th goal of the season had given Welling the lead before Tom Davis’ shot took an unfortunate deflection off the Wings’ skipper. Then came Sole’s thunderbolt!

Welling United’s manager Jamie Day, whose frustrations on the pitch as his team’s search for an equaliser earned him the only caution of the match, reflected on the outcome, saying, “It was disappointing that we come out and seconds after the restart we’ve conceded.

“We’ve just not switched on. We’ve done really well first half, then the boys have picked themselves up and had a real go second half, and in my opinion should have had a penalty, so I’m disappointed, but pleased with our performance.”

“We knew it was going to be a good game and it was good attacking play from both sides today. I thought that we gave a good account of ourselves, but we’ve switched off at two vital times and you can’t do that against teams that are at the top of the league.””

When asked about the possibility of catching Woking after this result and his aims for the remainder of the season, Day added: “It was difficult to say that we had a realistic chance. We had to come here today and win but we’ve not done that. Our aim at the start of the season was to get into the play-offs, so we’ve got to bounce back now on Tuesday and three or four more wins should hopefully do it.

“Obviously we want to win as many as we can, but three or four should be a good target to make sure.””

The first half was an end-to-end affair that ended with the score at one apiece, but both sides will wonder how they didn’t build up a substantial lead.

Within four minutes, Woking should have been ahead as Paris Cowan-Hall touched on Adam Newton’s free-kick to Moses Ademola on the edge of the six-yard box, and the former Welling forward’s shot was blocked by Craig Holloway’s legs, with the keeper quickly off his line reacting to the danger.

In reply, Loick Pires tried to latch onto Luis Cumbers’ cross from the left, but he missed his swing at the ball, then the outstanding Kieran Murtagh drove wide from 20 yards, with Holloway scrambling across his goal.

Welling took the lead on 17 minutes, as Parkinson swept home Jack Obersteller’s free-kick, after Anthony Acheampong had drawn Woking’s defensive organiser, Alan Inns, under the flight of the ball.

With the height missing from the centre of the defence, Parkinson had enough time to bring the ball down and fire home from inside the 6-yard box.

Within sixty seconds, the lead should have been doubled as Pires was released down the inside right channel, drove into the Woking box, but fired over from a tight angle with just Aaron Howe to beat.

Then Harry Baker saw his goalbound shot deflected away by a desperate lunge from former Ebbsfleet defender Derek Duncan.

Another former Fleet player, Sole had the chance to level matters just after the half hour as he reacted quickest to reach Murtagh’s deflected cross, but dragged his shot on the stretch wide of Holloway’s right hand post.

But Woking deservedly equalised on 36 minutes, but Welling would be questioning the part of Sole in the build-up.

As Scott Kinch and Sole challenged for the ball in the middle of the Welling half, the Wings’ midfielder crumpled to the ground, and unchallenged, Sole released Kevin Betsy down the left. Betsy pushed Loui Fazackerley into the box, squared the ball to the arriving Davis, whose shot took a wicked deflection of Parkinson’s right leg and into the corner of the net.

Day was disappointed by the build-up to the goal and admitted, “We probably didn’t defend well enough, we didn’t force them away from goal and then the shot has got a deflection and gone in. If you don’t defend properly when you play the top teams, that’s what sometimes happens.””

For the rest of the half, although both sides had opportunities to trouble the opposition, neither could find the right delivery into the area.

But the interval probably came at the wrong time for the visitors as they didn’t get started when Woking kicked off again.

A long ball from back to front cleared Kinch, who was still struggling from the knock he received in the build-up to Woking’s equaliser, and would be replaced within minutes, and Sole was able to turn Acheampong before firing a shot into the right corner from 25 yards just 12 seconds into the half.

Before Welling could recover from the shock of conceding the early goal, their goal came under a period of intense pressure.

First, Cowan-Hall’s looping effort was superbly saved by Holloway, before the keeper pushed Inns’ header from the resulting corner away, and Day had to head Doyle’s shot off the line. Cowan-Hall then had a shot tipped over the bar by Holloway as he was clear 20 yards out.

Sole fired a free kick wide from 30 yards, before Welling’s best chance of the half.

Day floated a wonderful pass beyond the Woking defence and Cumbers ran through, controlled the pass, and tried to place the ball past Howe, only to see the keeper make an incredible one-handed save low to his left.

With ten minutes left, Welling thought they should have been awarded a penalty. Cumbers and Howe collided in the Woking area, after Cumbers had managed to touch the ball beyond the Woking keeper, but the referee, who had an outstanding game, waved away the appeals, possibly because the ball had already run behind.

It could have been worse for Welling, as Betsy robbed Fazackerley on the halfway line and charged towards the Wings’ goal, but Mr Holderness’ whistle sounded for full-time before he could get a shot away.

Day, reflecting on the season so far, said: “We’ve been a little bit more consistent this year and in games where it has been tight we’ve managed to nick results. We’ve probably ground out more results that last year and we’ve got to continue to do that. We’ve been on a good run and we’ve got to get back to that as soon as possible.”

“We’ll rally the troops and get a fit eleven together, and hopefully we can get a win. Scott (Kinch) got a kick last week as well, and probably isn’t fully match fit yet, but we’ve got enough midfielders with Crackers (Dean Cracknell) and Clarkey (Lee Clarke) that can come in and do a good job, so we should have enough in that area.”

“We’ll have to see how we are tomorrow and Monday as we’ve got a tough game on Tuesday at Maidenhead, not an easy place to go. We need to go there and get three points. We know that if we’re not on it and don’t perform properly, we’re going to come unstuck and get beaten.”

Woking:  Aaron Howe, Adam Newton, Derek Duncan, Keiran Murtagh, Alan Inns, Adam Doyle, Paris Cowan-Hall (Wayne Gray 76), Tom Davis, Moses Ademola, Giuseppe Sole (Elvis Hammond 82), Kevin Betsy.
Subs: Andy Little, Joe McNerney, Joshua Griffiths

Goals: Tom Davis 36, Giuseppe Sole 46

Welling United: Craig Holloway, Loui Fazackerley, Jack Obersteller, Scott Kinch (Lee Clarke 52), Anthony Acheampong, Andy Sambrook, Jack Parkinson, Jamie Day, Luis Cumbers, Harry Baker (Ben Greenhalgh 78), Loick Pires.
Subs: Warren McBean, Dean Cracknell, Ryan Flack

Goal: Jack Parkinson 17

Booked: Jamie Day 84

Attendance: 1,926 (140 Welling supporters)
Referee: Mr Barry Holderness (Wickford, Essex)
Assistants: Mr Andrew Parker (Stanford-le-Hope, Essex) and Mr Carl Pearse (Colchester, Essex)