Late goals again cost Welling United when they crashed at Burgess Hill Town to two stoppage time strikes. After the match, Welling manager Ryan Maxwell shared his thoughts.

“It was a very good first half.” he said. “The boys executed the plan brilliantly. We could have scored a couple of goals in the first half but we didn’t. In fairness, they had a chance as well, a good chance too and Macca (Mackenzie Foley) made a very good save, but we had the majority of the better chances in the first half.”

“Nil-nil at half time and I think, second half we started okay. We had a wee spell and we scored from that little spell. We were one-nil up and I think, ultimately, we got too deep in the second half. It’s as simple as that. Football’s a simple game.”

“The deeper you get, the less they have to do to score. Ultimately, we’ve got too deep, came off what was working in the first half and even at one-all with two minutes to go, we’re far too deep.”

“The players, of course they feel dejected.” Maxwell continued.

“At one point they had three points in their hand and we’ve come away with none and to lose so late, obviously disappointing, but they need to replicate that first half performance against the lesser sides.”

“This is a good team, Burgess Hill, they’ve been together for some time while my team is finding its feet still because we have to keep signing better players and I think their continuity showed as well in comparison to ours which helped them.”

“Taking all into account, (I’m) very disappointed for them (the players). A point would have been a great point as well but having had three, I think that they’re a bit dejected because of it but this team, they bounce back. They’ve got strong characters and if they can just address what happened in the second half we’ll win more than we’ll lose.”

To cover for the absence of Lekan Majoyegbe through suspension, Vladimir Paternoster has come in on loan from Luton Town and has been excellent. The availability of the centre back following his ban left Maxwell with a decision to make, and he elected to restore him.

He explained: “Lekan nearly scored at the far post. Lekan has that threat in the box that Vlad doesn’t have yet and I thought that would be key today. It was purely that decision. I knew we’d have set pieces, and it was purely that. Lekan’s been our player of the month. Lekan’s been outstanding.”

Any defeat in stoppage time can be demoralising and for it to happen two weeks on the spin was testing but Maxwell was quite calm about it.

He said: “It’s a good job I’ve got a strong character. Nobody died, there’s a lot going on in the world, and I keep it relative. The bottom line is we’ve lost late on to Dartford and Burgess Hill and I think earlier in the season, they’re write-offs probably.”

“I have to keep things level headed, look at them objectively and for large parts today, we were very good. The team has come on, the team has improved and we’ve got to keep doing that.”

It was the fourth time that Welling have lost points in time added on, although not all under Maxwell’s stewardship and he knows that it needs to be eradicated.

“I’ve touched on it in there (the changing room) on what to do next time round, because I’m aware of it too.” he said.

“I don’t want it to happen again. I need to coach them, I need to manage them. They are giving me everything. They’re good listeners. On this tactic of late on in the game we have to adopt a different approach and we will do from now on.”

Picture supplied by Seth Maile.