Despite having the better of the game, Welling United were defeated by Bath City in their Vanarama National League South match at the J. Hearnden Skip Hire Community Stadium.

In the early exchanges, Welling goalkeeper Ben Winterbottom had to turn away a Scott Wilson cross-shot. At the other end Jephte Tanga crossed low for Antony Papadopoulos. He was unable to get a shot away so he laid it back to Lewis White who shot over.

Dominic Odusanya then had an effort saved by Ollie Wright before Bath went ahead in the twentieth minute. Ewan Clark crossed, Wilson headed it on, and Jordan Thomas found enough space at the far post to fire home off the underside of the bar.

Wilson had another chance when winning a midfield tackle before firing over before a disagreement between the two coaching teams ended with yellow cards for Welling coach Teddy Bloor and Bath manager Jerry Gill.

Papadopoulos shot wide from distance and Tanga fired over from out wide before further dissent from Gill at half time resulted in the referee losing patience and showing him a red card.

Early in the second period clever Welling football sent Crossley Lema clear down the right hand side and he cut in before firing low and hard. Wright got down but couldn’t hold it and was relieved to see a defender hack it away.

Thomas’ header and Wilson’s shot flew over however Welling continued to have the majority of the possession without creating clear-cut chances. Odusanya had a flick volley blocked from Jephte Tanga’s cross before the hosts again failed to take advantage of good positions.

Amadou Kassarate’s low drive was parried out into the danger area by Wright, then Kain Adom pulled back from the bye-line across the penalty area but on neither occasion were Welling able to get on the end of them.

Deep into injury time, Bath might have added a second when Wilson broke clear before firing over however there was still time for late drama. Tanga burst through and fell after being tackled by Clark. Hopeful shouts for a penalty were dismissed and Welling were beaten.

Two consecutive defeats for the Wings have put them back into the bottom four ahead of the start of their F.A. Cup campaign at Dartford next week.

Welling United: Winterbottom, Lema, Green, Vaughan, Byrd, Burchell, Tanga, Odusanya, MacAllister (Adom 73), Papadopoulos (Kamara 73), White (|Kassarate 81). Sub not used: Andrews, Lugboso.