In arguably their worst performance under Ryan Maxwell, Welling United crashed to defeat at home to Hashtag United giving them a tougher task to remain in the Isthmian League Premier Division.

After the match, Maxwell offered his views.

“Today was an off day, there’s no doubt about it.” he said. “I’ll praise the players when they deserve it, but I’m straight and I told the players in no uncertain terms. They’re very aware of how I felt on today’s performance. It wasn’t a good day for us. We didn’t play well. We didn’t attack well and made bad decisions.”

“Having got to nil-nil at half time, I was convinced that we would be better in the second half then we concede the goal from the corner that it really didn’t help us at all in terms of the timing of it. We did have a plan. We had to get through the next fifteen minutes then make the subs in a positive manner rather than try to catch up when you’re down.”

“The second goal, quite soon afterwards, I’m not going to point fingers at players because they do give me everything. A couple of decisions were poor today and unfortunately one of these led to a goal. At two-nil, the game is certainly in their hands.”

“I thought they (Hashtag) managed it quite well. We tried a number of things to get us going, changed the shape, personnel, etcetera. It was one of those days where nothing was happening, no fluidity or control which is so unlike us. I want to put it down to a bad day in the office and one that we really have to pick the bones out as a squad, and then go again positively.”

Almost as soon as the game started, the visitors created chances to score. “We were slow out of the blocks.” confirmed Maxwell. “We had two strikers today and we felt that we would go back to front a bit quicker but we then ignored the midfield in terms of getting some control. It’s okay going back to front but you have to have triggers and timing of the moves and we didn’t have that.”

“We didn’t go direct with quality so it came back at times. Although we had two opportunities (before half time), I don’t think we had an awful lot for how we were trying to play. I’d have rather we put our foot on the ball and passed it a little bit more, and mixed our game up. We didn’t do that. They were certainly more on the front foot than us.”

He continued “We shouldn’t have to defend so much. We have an agreement, the players and I, we have a good relationship as well, really good. They’re good honest good boys. They’ve been doing well recently. It was only two weeks ago that we were sixth in the form guide so you’ve got to keep it relative.”

“This is a marathon, not a sprint. I’ve been doing this for a while in times of fighting my way out of relegations. I understand there’s ebb and flows and twists and turns but I’m never too high when we win and never too low when we lose.”

Next Saturday, Welling visit runaway league leaders, Folkestone Invicta, and Maxwell expects a bit more quality from his team. He said  “This is a great club. They’re lucky to be playing for Welling. I do remind them of that. They have to manage this disappointing performance and result and ultimately, everything comes from within the individual.”

“I’m angry we lost. I’m more angry about the performance. I can take a defeat because sometimes it happens when you don’t deserve it, same as you sometimes win when you don’t deserve it but the manner of defeat has annoyed me so, on a personal note, the game can’t come quickly enough. It’s eleven v eleven and we have to go there with confidence.”

His team has shown the ability to rebound before. Maxwell said “We got beaten six-one away at Billericay, then lost one-nil to Chatham, then went and won three-one against Cheshunt and it is about bouncebackability. It’s massive in football, it’s an absolute must and we have to show it again. We have shown it. We’ve come back from disappointment and won again and we’ll have to do that again, but I don’t want to ever lose one again like that.”

Junior Savane was absent through injury, and with no like for like in the squad, Maxwell had to reshuffle his team from the one that recently won two on the spin. “We missed Junior today.” he admitted. “He was a big loss, and because of that we changed the shape but we still had some really good players out there with pro experience. It looks like he’ll be back now.”  

Picture supplied by Keith Gillard.