Sheringham sinks Dover

12:02pm Monday 4th August 2008

Welling United 1-0 Dover Athletic

THE Wings finished off their pre-season campaign with a hard-fought win over a resilient Dover Athletic side on Saturday afternoon at Park View Road thanks to an early header from Charlie Sheringham.

Andy Ford was absent due to illness, but his assistant Jimmy Dack took control for the day and was in buoyant mood at the final whistle.

Dack said: "I am delighted because Dover are a good side. I have a mate down at Gillingham and he said Dover gave them a lot of problems there when Dover beat them.

"We started out playing 4-4-2 but we changed to a 4-5-1 during the game because I felt Dover were getting through the middle a lot and our players didn't know about it, so I am very happy.

"Everybody here, the staff, the board, and the players, realise we have put together a young squad, so they've got to be patient and realise we are going to make the odd mistake.

"But if we keep the squad together, and as they play together and learn together, the club will end up with a very good team."

Welling kick-off the Blue Square South campaign at Bath City on Saturday and Dack revealed Ford already has a pretty strong idea about who will make the starting line-up in the west country.

He added: "The gaffer knows pretty much what he wants. He knows nine or 10 of the players, but I'm glad it's him picking the team not me and I wish he was here today because there were some promising performances out there."

The match itself was in the end decided early on with the winning goal coming after 10 minutes.

Dover manager Andy Hessenthaler was angry at the award of the free-kick and became even more frustrated when Ellis Green found Sheringham, who was totally unmarked, six yards from goal.

Sheringham coolly headed into the bottom corner, giving Dover goalkeeper John Whitehouse no chance.

The first half continued to produce better scoring opportunities than the second with both sides having their moments.

Sonny Cobbs had a shot saved well by Whitehouse on 17 minutes and 10 minutes later, Alan Pouton skipped past Wings defender Graeme Andrews before forcing a good reaction save from Jamie Turner at his near post.

The best chance of a second goal came on the stroke of the break when the Blue Square South team put together a great counter attack.

The move started out on the left flank before the ball came to Sheringham, who squared to strike partner Joe Healy but his effort rolled agonizingly wide.

Inevitably the second half was littered with substitutions and the match seemed to fade away as a result.

But both sides looked fairly resilient and in the end, the difference was just the goal from Sheringham due to poor marking.

The match against Dover marked the end of pre-season for Welling and with the serious business just around the corner, Dack was unwilling to give a prediction for the season.

He said: "I don't like making predictions because most of the time they come back to haunt you.

"I do make predictions, but I don't like telling the world. I keep them at home."

Welling: Turner, Sinclair (Johnson 45), Braham-Barrett (Lovell 45), Quinn, McEntegart (Chappell 66), Andrews, Green (Schoburg 66), Smith (Martin 45), Healy, Sheringham (Pinnock 66), Cobbs (Oakley 87).