Defeat at Folkestone Invicta caused Welling United to drop into the penultimate spot in the Isthmian League Premier Division. After the match, Welling manager Ryan Maxwell shared his thoughts.

“It’s the most difficult match in the fixture list, away to the team who are comfortably top and will win the league, there’s no doubt about that. They’ve got a very good squad, managed well, very good players and you can see just how strong they are in terms of their bench. Fair play and good luck to them.”

“So, it was a difficult game and I was quite pleased with a lot of stuff, particularly the first half. (I was) Particularly pleased with some little moments in the game, little half chances and we limited them to not loads. I thought the young right back (Zak O’Keefe) who came in from Leyton Orient did very well.”

“He got booked in the first half and had to manage himself in the second, that was his debut today. I was really pleased with him. Also Sam (Smith) in midfield. I thought he did really well, started to tire, he hasn’t played loads of games recently, I was really pleased with his first half performance.”

During the first half an hour, Folkestone hardly laid a glove on Maxwell’s team however the hosts scored ten minutes before the break.

He said: “I was disappointed with how we conceded the goal because it was a runner, it was a third man run and we haven’t tracked him and also the left back hasn’t come across to narrow off the space. We know who should have tracked him and he’s held his hands up, and if we can get in at nil-nil at half time, who knows what can happen in the second half.”

“That may just have been a bit of a confidence diminisher but in saying that, I was quite pleased with how we responded. We had a little spell in the game. It was obviously two-nil in the end but we had a little spell with a few balls across the box.”

“We certainly weren’t dramatically dominated but we let them have the ball. We knew that they are a good team in possession. We understood that. We let them have it in certain areas and we were still in the game. Even at two-nil, we certainly didn’t give up and roll over, we were still in the game.”

“We still kept going up until the very end. I think that was very important today. I needed to see certain characteristics and certain aspects back today and I did see them. It was certainly there, we made a game of it, that’s for sure.”

Mackenzie Foley, Welling’s goalkeeper was rarely tested. “That’s because we’ve stayed in the game.” added Maxwell.

“We’ve rolled our sleeves up. We’ve stayed in the fight. We’ve stayed in the battle. The boys have done their jobs. He (Foley)’s made one good save and picked it out of the net twice.”

“It’s bitter-sweet in that sense because you’d kind of expect our goalkeeper to be peppered but he hasn’t been but we’ve not peppered theirs either. We’ve had half chances that we should have done better in and around the box in the first half and they’ve made a great couple of tackles as well to be fair to them, you can see that’s why they’re keeping clean sheets etcetera.”

“It wasn’t a game of us getting peppered and our keeper being ultra busy. That wasn’t the case.”

Ade Azeez was left on the bench but Maxwell confirmed that he wasn’t injured. “It was tactical today, playing one up top and I thought that (Bradley) Sach was brilliant in his role today.” he said.

“I thought that he did really well. If we play them both from the start we change the shape and also if one of them gets a knock or an injury, they’re not available for Tuesday. We had to be a wee bit mindful of Tuesday’s game as well. But I’m pleased with them both. They both shared the role today and did it well.” 

Picture supplied by Keith Gillard.