Another tight game went against Lee Martin’s Welling United as they fell to a controversial defeat at Carshalton Athletic. After the game Martin spoke to Mark Doig.

At two-one down approaching stoppage time, Welling’s John Ufuah got the wrong side of Sanchez Ming and was brought down by the former Wing in the penalty area. Surprisingly, the referee awarded a free kick the other way. “It was a pen, one hundred percent.” moaned Martin. “Their manager even admitted to it. I just don’t know how they get it that wrong.

“You saw on Tuesday they got it wrong, massively wrong, and they got it wrong again today. It can’t keep happening, can it? When does it stop?”

Although Carshalton’s first goal took a massive deflection to wrong-foot goalkeeper Freddie Norman, Martin didn’t look at that as an excuse. “The first goal could have been stopped at source.” he admitted. “We end up pulling back our charger and then they managed to play two passes before they got the shot away. I’m not quite sure what’s happened there and who’s given that information because they’re prepped and they’re told so that’s an individual error.

“I thought we had defended really well up to that point and I thought that we created more chances and probably looked the better side. After that we got a little bit tired and complacent with our passing but even then, I think a fair result would probably have been a draw.

“We wanted to go with a real shore up at the back, try and create that clean sheet, but it doesn’t seem that it’s coming so it’s disappointing but we’ve got to dust them down and go again on Tuesday. The good thing is it comes around quickly so we’ve got another game where we can put it right.”

Martin confirmed that he is on the look out for new players constantly, but has to be patient at times. He confirmed “Femi (Akinwande) wasn’t available at the start of the season. Football moves in mysterious ways and a new manager’s come in (at Billericay Town) and had their identity and players that they want to go after so if something crops up, who’s going to benefit us as a team and as a squad, we’ll act on it.”

Explaining why there were only three substitutes on the bench, Martin said “I got a text late last night that Christian (Scott) wasn’t well, suspension with Scott (Simmons), (Greg) Cundle’s injury and Bright (Siaw)’s injury and Tom Leahy, so five boys were missing today which means we’re light. It doesn’t help, especially when you need people with their backs to the walls willing to fight for you. At the moment we haven’t got personnel that we can bring on to do that.”

James Dyer was the only one of the three substitutes who was fully fit. Martin confirmed “TQ (Addy) is just back and trained for about twenty minutes on Thursday. I’m not sure how that looks for him in minutes and how Tuesday looks for him as well now. We do need to be mindful of that.

“John (Ufuah) had a tight calf, again we can’t flog him with Tuesday in mind.”

Just who will be available for their game at Hashtag United on Tuesday remains to be seen but Martin will be doing everything in his power to turn things around.

Image courtesy of Keith Gillard