Despite surrendering a two goal advantage, Welling United showed their character when coming back to beat Potters Bar Town in their Isthmian League Premier Division encounter. After the game, Ryan Maxwell gave his thoughts.

“We’re in a relegation dogfight and nine times out of ten we’ve come up trumps against the teams in and around us.” he said. “I was pretty confident we’d win today. We were so good in the first half and good value for money at two-nil. I just thought more of the same but they got a bit of a fortuitous goal. It’s ricocheted back and he’s finished it, we’ve had to react and then they’ve scored an absolute peach, in fairness. 

“We’ve had to react again and you think it’s going to end two-all here but we’ve managed to get the winner. The boys are absolutely delighted in there but it’s bitter-sweet. They are a little bit disappointed that they’ve had to come back and get the winner having already had three points at two-nil but they have showed character to come back and get that goal. These boys work hard and I always believe the harder you work, the luckier you’ll get.”

In recent weeks, Welling have dropped points when conceding late so Maxwell was happy that it was his team that scored the late winner this time around. He said “They say that things even themselves out over time if you work hard enough and today Jamie Reynolds has popped up with the winner. They are a great hard working honest group and they didn’t stop until the final whistle.

“He’s had to be patient after starting games for us, he’s had to be patient again.” Maxwell continued. “I had a little quiet word with him yesterday. I told him how important he was and what a good player he was and I’m just delighted that phone call wasn’t wasted because he’s popped up with a great finish. It was on his right foot, he’s left footed, a fantastic finish. He’s had to be patient but he’s reacted so positively, as all the boys do.”

The goal was created by a moment of quality by John Ufuah. Maxwell enthused “Fantastic from John. Real quality. John’s an excellent player. We’ve just got to get him consistent more and John can be a real absolute player.”

Although it was a crucial match, there is still a long way to go. “It’s one game at a time.” said Maxwell. “We’re in a war and in this war we’ve got many battles, it’s as simple as that. That’s the mindset I’ve put these boys in and it’s another battle. We are fighting for our lives and we’ll continue to fight. We’ve got eight more of these. We’ll be very battle hardened, that’s for sure. It’s one game at a time, never too high never too low. Stay focussed, stay level headed and we’ll just deal with each match as they come.”

Naming a man of the match was almost impossible. Maxwell said “There were so many performances in the first half, it was a collective performance. Everyone did their job. There was only one team in it. 

“Second half got a little bit basketbally at times, and a little bit disjointed and stretched but there were lots of good performances and we need everyone at the pump at the minute. It was a good performance.”

On Friday, there was the announcement of the signing of Noah Stewart on loan from Maidenhead United. He watched the match from the substitute’s bench. Maxwell admitted “I couldn’t get him on today because the game didn’t require it. We didn’t have that opportunity to get him on. If it had been three-nil then we would have done it but it just wasn’t right. We had to keep continuity with the boys that know each other. It would have been a bit of a risk chucking him on in a game like this in those circumstances so we decided not to but he’ll get his chance.”

Picture supplied by Seth Maile.