Neither Welling United nor St Albans City did enough to win their Vanarama National League South match at the J. Hearnden Skip Hire Community Stadium.

Both teams defences played well in front of a congested midfield and even half chances were at a premium.

Danny Bloor brought in Adam Roscrow for his debut to try and resolve his side’s difficulties in the final third and will have been horrified to see his new signing sustain a serious looking ankle injury in the eleventh minute. Roscrow had to be helped off and replaced by Alex MacAllister.

Jack Burchall couldn’t get enough power on a shot to worry Michael Johnson after Lachlan Byrd headed James Vaughan’s corner back across goal. Then Jephte Tanga collected Cameron Green’s brilliant cross-field pass before firing across the face of goal.

Outrageous skill by Lewis White created another opening for Welling. Green’s pass down the line was flicked by White to send the Saints defence the wrong way and put Vaughan through down the left hand side but his attempt to slot it home wasn’t wide enough and Johnson was able to make the save. White then hit a shot cleanly, but straight, and Johnson held it well.

Despite having played the better football in the first half, the Wings might have gone behind just before the break had goalkeeper Ben Winterbottom not been alert. He was out quickly to make an excellent block tackle when Jack James burst though.

Andronicos Georgiou fired over for the Saints early in the second half however Welling were soon back at the other end and Vaughan struck a free kick straight at Johnson after White was brought down on the edge of the penalty area.

Tanga came desperately close to scoring with a left foot shot that went just beyond the far post with Johnson beaten before James drew a comfortable save out of Winterbottom.

Kain Adom replaced White and had a shout for a penalty when he appeared to have been clipped in the area but the appeal fell on deaf ears.

As the game moved into the closing phases, St Albans looked more threatening. Winterbottom did well to get across and beat out a free kick from Shaun Jeffers. James followed up but his shot was blocked. Michael Clark then headed wide from a corner before Welling threw bodies into the way of shots in a last gasp scramble with Byrd taking one in the face for his troubles.

On Tuesday, Welling head to Worthing looking to extend their three match unbeaten run.

Welling United: Winterbottom, Lema, Green, Vaughan (Kassarate 80), Byrd, Burchell, Tanga, Odusanya, Roscrow (MacAllister 11), Papadopoulos, White (Adom 73). Sub not used Olomowewe, Kamara.