After his first match since being appointed as manager of Welling United, Peter Taylor is under no illusion about the challenge that lies ahead.

His young team went down three-nil at Oxford City after goalkeeper Tom Smith was injured with no replacement keeper on the bench. However, the first half display did offer some encouragement.

After the game, Taylor said “(It was a) disappointing defeat because it was three-nil but the first half was good. The first half was quite positive and I thought the players did alright. They created a couple of chances, conceded an easy goal which didn’t help but at half time I felt as though we were in the game. 

“Second half, we get an injury to the goalkeeper and not only did it hurt the team but it hurt the attitude of the players. I think that they felt that the loss was too much and they seemed to get a bit too negative.”

Smith’s injury was a blow to Welling in the game, and to their future hopes. Taylor said “He doesn’t look as if he is going to be ready in a short time, it looks as if he’s popped his shoulder out, so it looks as though it could be a long time.”

Whilst disappointed with his own team, Taylor was happy to give Oxford some credit. “I think that they look a good team.” he said. “They’re sixth or seventh in the league. They way they looked in the second half, we’re second from bottom and they’re sixth or seventh and it looked about right. We’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s as simple as that.”

Welling have another tough trip next week at Chippenham and although they will go looking to get something out of the game, there are no quick fixes to resolve their situation. Taylor admitted “It’s going to take a bit of time, there’s no doubt about that. It’s going to take quite a few training sessions. It’s going to take, hopefully, one or two changes of personnel because we need something else in the building. It’s going to take a bit of work but we’ll have a go at it.”