After Welling lost at home to Wealdstone ending their run of six wins, first team coach, Jack Parkinson, was delighted with the reaction.

Suspensions to both him and Ben Jefford caused Welling to make changes going into Saturday’s 2-1 win at St Albans City and Archie Johnson was drafted in to make his first league start of the season.

Parkinson was delighted with his contribution saying “I thought Archie was outstanding. I thought their best player by a long shot was Rhys (Murrell-Williamson) on that side. We knew they were a threat going forward. We knew their two wide boys were quick and they are quite direct so it was important that we defended well.

“I thought that if we could nullify their two wide players we had more than enough going forward. They were at home so they were always going to have a spell at some point but I thought we managed the game well. It was important that on a big pitch that we did try and play and I thought that it worked.”

Going into the game, Welling had three out and out strikers competing for one place with Joe Healy playing behind in the number 10 role.

Parkinson explained that needing to play the style that they wanted on that pitch as being the reason that Bradley Goldberg got the nod. “Brad’s got very clever movement and he’s good into feet.” he said. “ Joe looks to run in behind and he’s an aerial threat too. With the wide players we’ve got, we were always going to cause them problems going the other way.”

Healy opened the scoring just before the break and Parkinson expressed the importance saying “Just before half time is always a very good time to score. It was a very well worked goal. We deserved it. We didn’t really pepper their goal too much but I thought that we had enough possession and deserved to go in in front.”

Celebrations of the second goal showed that there is a real unity within the squad and Parkinson expanded saying: “What was pleasing was that we’ve got such a tight group here and everyone’s in it together. When the lads do come off the bench, Eli’s come on, Tom’s come on, Jack’s come on, and nothing has changed. It was a good time to score but it was deserved as well. I thought we caused them problems all afternoon.”

They were also indebted to goalkeeper Dillon Barnes in his final appearance for Welling saying “It’s also important to mention Dillon. Dillon’s pulled off two or three good saves at the right time today. It just shows that collectively, it was a good performance.”

He was also at pains to mention the supporters saying: “The fans have been brilliant, especially the ones that go away from home. They travel everywhere with us. It’s massive. It shows that there’s a little bit more of a bond between the fans and the players.”

If there is one thing that Welling could improve on, it’s the fact that the two suspensions took the number served or being served by Welling up to seven this season and that’s a big hindrance. Parkinson admitted: “We spoke before the game. Our disciplinary record needs to improve, there’s no doubt about it.”

“When you’re working on a small budget, and with a smaller squad, we need to make sure that we’ve got players available. Some of them have been a little unlucky. Some of them have not been unlucky and it needs to be improved. It has been spoken about because we need everyone to be fit and available and that includes myself.”

Some supporters were surprised by the substitutions of Healy and Jack Jebb, the goalscorers, who had bossed midfield but Parkinson explained: “Joe had to come off because he’d done so much running, he’d been so energetic, that his legs had gone. The mileage he put in, he covered enough ground defensively as well as going forward. He’d done his bit.”

“Jebby, his hamstring was tightening up a little bit and we couldn’t take the risk that one, leaving him on as he was struggling and two, losing him in the long term. That’s credit to the squad we’ve got that we’ve got players that can move about and fill in where we need to.”

His final praise was for Healy, whose goal was his sixth in seven games, saying: “Joe is the Non League Lampard, let’s not hide that. Joe’s been doing that for years. For me he’s always been that kind of player. What’s good about Joe is that you can play him as a left midfield, as a centre midfield. You can play him as a ten or as a centre forward. He’s as good as anybody in those positions.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.