Wings come back down to earth

10:00am Monday 18th August 2008

Welling United 1-1 Basingstoke Town

WELLING failed to live up to the heights of their first two league wins as a rather abject performance saw them end up with a fortunate point at home to Basingstoke.

James Faulkner opened the scoring in the first half for the visitors, but Sonny Cobbs scored the equaliser just moments later.

Manager Andy Ford admitted he was far from happy with his side's performance, but said he expected a second rate performance every so often.

He explained: "Football is often like this when you ask yourself why we can't play like we did in the last two games.

"There were some disappointing individual performances out there and we didn't really get going.

"The pitch was dry and we like a quick surface, so I'm obviously disappointed but it's not like I didn't expect this to happen at some point."

Ford also conceded he was not happy with the performance of his defence coming off the back of two clean sheets.

He added: "The defending has been very good, but today it wasn't at all.

"I want my centre backs to be winning a large percentage of headers and today I don't think they did."

The manager was also hard pressed to pick a standout performance from his squad.

He added: "I'm struggling today. I thought Craig Barrett played well last week and praised him for that, but it didn't quite come off for him today.

"I think Joe Healy worked quite hard on his own up front. He worked tirelessly but nothing other than that."

Ford also admitted although he has started the first three games with the same team and feels that is his strongest line-up, there are still likely to be changes in due course.

He said: "That will evolve over the season. There are a few tweaks and changes like the fact Frankie Chappell wasn't available for the first two games, but he's back in contention now.

"At the moment, this is my strongest team because otherwise I wouldn't be playing it."

Welling failed to show some of the great football they played in the second half against Braintree.

There was rarely any decent service for the strikers who were living on scraps throughout.

Joe Healy almost put the Wings in front when a ball through from Ryan Martin found him in acres of space, but his shot was deflected away by goalkeeper Ross Kitteridge onto the post.

Healy then linked-up with Charlie Sheringham, but there was nobody in the six-yard box to convert his driven cross.

Basingstoke took the lead on 37 minutes when David Tarpey headed into the box for Faulkner to loop his header into the far corner past Jamie Turner.

It was only five minutes later when Welling found their equaliser through Cobbs. Cobbs latched onto the ball on the edge of the area and his 20-yard effort took a wicked deflection off Joe Dolan to leave the goalkeeper stranded.

In the second half, Welling failed to put any moves together and it was the visitors who should have snatched three points it the final 15 minutes.

Firstly, Carl Gibbs smashed a shot into orbit form six yards and in the final minute, Tony Sinclair had to clear off the line to deny Gibbs as Turner went on a walkabout.

Welling travel to Thurrock on the August 23, but return to Park View Road on Bank Holiday Monday to face Fisher Athletic.

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