There was plenty of effort but no end product in Saturday's clash at Park View Road
Welling United 0-0 St Albans City
WINGS boss Andy Ford had publicly declared following the results gained in March, his team no longer needed to risk losing matches to chase victories.
March manager-of-the-month, Steve Castle from visitors St Albans City probably felt likewise, so it was little surprise Saturday's encounter was a cagey affair.
A great tackle from Max Hustwick kept the Saints at bay initially and then an Orlando Smith cross into the visitors' penalty area caused mayhem from Welling's first meaningful attack.
St Albans came close when Hassan Sulamain cut in from the wing and shot across the face of the goal and Jonathan Hunt had a shot deflected by Carpenter into the arms of Jamie Turner.
Sulamain's game ended prematurely when he pulled up holding his hamstring and had to be replaced by Hamza Twomey.
advertisement
Welling then came close when a delightful Carpenter chipped cross just evaded Sonny Cobbs arriving late at the far post.
There was a further injury hold up when Turner, punching out, was challenged heavily by Akkani-Sunday Wasiu, causing him to land awkwardly.
Thankfully for the hosts, with no substitute goalkeeper on the bench, Turner was able to continue albeit in some discomfort.
As the half-time whistle finally arrived with neither team having won a corner throughout the first 45 minutes, Ford decided to make a tactical change by bringing on Ellis Remy for Calum Crawley.
If St Albans had shaded the first half, restructured Welling were dominant for long spells of the second period and Cobbs again came close from a Carpenter free-kick.
Smith pulled a shot wide for the hosts before Robbie Ryan came to Welling's rescue with a sliding block to thwart Lee Clarke.
Further excellent close control allowed Smith to cut in from the byline and his cut back gave the industrious Cobbs a further chance which he poked just wide at full stretch.
With Welling on top, the hosts had solid looking claims for a penalty turned down when Sam Gargan appeared to be fouled, although this turned out to be immaterial when the assistant referee's flag was seen raised for offside.
Castle made a double substitution for the visitors with 10 minutes remaining and the move almost paid dividends when Simon Martin, one of the newly introduced players, had two opportunities to win the match for the visitors.
The first was well saved by Turner and the second was called back for a high foot on Turner with the ball floating towards an empty net.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
