Three late Cray Wanderers goals helped them to a deserved victory over Welling United in an incident packed Isthmian League Premier Division local derby. After the game, Wands’ manager Tim O’Shea gave his views about a game with many incidents.

“It was the same last year.” he said. “A lot of excitement, it ended up three-two (to Welling). We were two-nil up but I’ve got to give credit to Maxy (Welling manager Ryan Maxwell) and his side because we were fortunate, although we would have liked to, to not have had a game on Saturday so the boys get that little bit of freshness.”

“They haven’t played that ninety minutes and I think you could see it was quite even first half, to a degree, we probably could have gone in ahead but, against the run of play, they scored with their first set piece and they dug in. Maxy gets a tune out of these boys like nobody else would.”

“The fact that it took us second half, and probably, a little bit to play in that is maybe they played Saturday. I went and watched them and the weather was brutal, it was hard work so fair play to them. Fair play.”

Two players were sent off, Lekan Majoyegbe of Welling, and Cray goalkeeper Henry Molyneux. O’Shea said: “I think the guy from Welling, when you’re already on a booking, it was a clumsy one that he will probably look back and think he should probably have just stayed off that one so that one’s probably nailed on.”

“Our one, he’s on a booking and you’re on a knife edge and he comes and claims, which is great, it’s what we want him to do, but I think he just forgot his bearings and he’s taken one step out of the box and it’s handball. The linesman’s on it, and I suppose you’ve left the referee no other alternative.”

“It wasn’t intentional, but, unfortunately I suppose with referees, there are so many different rules and interpretations now, that they are under pressure to make decisions and we’ve just got to go with it. I don’t think we could argue that it wasn’t a second yellow as that’s the letter of the law.”

Due to a lack of fit substitutes, O’Shea named a young goalkeeper, Oscar Johnson, on the bench which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He said: “When you can only put four subs on the bench, and two of them are seventeen year olds, one being the keeper, yes in hindsight, fate, call it what you like, the fact that we’ve put him on there, he’s a talent.”

“The fact that he’s come on in a real hostile atmosphere. The Welling fans were magnificent behind the goal. He’s under pressure. The kid’s seventeen and it’s his debut, his first experience of first team football, hostility behind the goal, and he’s handled it really, really well so I’m chuffed for Oscar. He’ll go home and enjoy the rest of his week.”

O’Shea felt that it was a proper derby match. “Absolutely proper.” he said. “From benches, both passionate people, Maxy, myself, my backroom staff, their backroom staff, I think that feeds onto the pitch. I was a bit disappointed in the first half with our intensity because, as I said to them, they’ve just had a game, ninety minutes, we cannot let them catch their breath.”

“Really take the game to them, it was a little bit slow at times. That suited Welling but I think that was a proper game of football. If you’re a neutral, or whatever you might be, and you’ve come down, irrespective of the result, you’re going to think that was a proper game of football.”

“I think the referee handled it really, really well on the pitch, on the day. Maxy might look at me and say because we’ve won four-one, I’m going to say that. I think what he didn’t get right, he was quite even, it wasn’t just one side. It was a big game for him to play in as well. Tackles went in but there wasn’t any real over the top malicious tackles from both sides.”

Whilst O’Shea was happy that the outcome was warranted, he felt that Welling playing twice in three days while his team didn’t play for nine days may have had an effect. He said: “I said to Maxy straight after the final whistle that the fact that we didn’t have a game on Saturday was probably the difference.”

“It was contrasting the way we both played, both teams were effective at what they do. There doesn’t have to be one style of play and I think the fact that second half, we’re still full of running is a lot to say for the fact that Maxy’s team had a real tough one on Saturday.”