One early goal and another clean sheet was enough to keep Welling United’s one hundred percent home league record intact as they beat Leatherhead in the Isthmian League Premier Division.

After the game, manager Ryan Maxwell and his assistant Billy McMahon offered their thoughts.

“It was a typical Tuesday night.” said McMahon. “Hard fought, hard worked. You’ve got to give credit to Leatherhead. I thought we were the better team first half. They were probably the better team second half.”

“When you’re one-nil and you’re trying to hold on to the result, full credit to them (the Welling players). I thought they worked hard, this group don’t know when they’re beaten. They just keep going and going and going.”

Maxwell added: “They’re a good side, Leatherhead. Don’t get that confused at all, or take it lightly. We were very good value in the first half. Two goals would have been fair. It wasn’t.”

“We had to ride it out in the second half and hit them on the counter. I think the boys have got to take credit for not being disheartened that they weren’t two-nil up, and still have the focus, that determination to keep that clean sheet is even bigger in my opinion, because you have to win one-nil.” 

On the absence of Nathan Cooper and Kevin Rivera, Maxwell said: “Coops is away, as was Kevin. We knew Kevin was away when we signed him, we only signed Kevin last week so to have them both missing, you’d think it’s a loss but you have to give credit to the squad.”

“Zuriel (Otseh-Taiwo)’s come in and was superb tonight, absolutely brilliant. Zak (O’Keefe) went and played centre back although that happened against Burgess Hill, we’ve done it before, and they replicated another great performance between the two of them. I think me and Bill are just delighted with the squad, really.” 

Tactically, Welling lined up differently to usual. “We’ve changed the shape tonight.” confirmed Maxwell. “We haven’t done it at home and we had reasons for that, we won’t disclose them.”

“It really worked in the first half, you could see that. We should have been two-nil up. Lambo’s (Nahum Melvin-Lambert) missed nearly an open goal, bless him, to make it two-nil so we made some changes and they worked.”

“In the second half, Leatherhead came into it and put us under pressure. We decided to soak it up and hit them on the counter and we could have put it to bed a couple of times. Then we had to ride it out. We’ve always said Macca (Mackenzie Foley)’s a top drawer goalkeeper, and that save was absolutely top drawer. That was a massive moment tonight, to keep the clean sheet.”

On the goal, McMahon said: “It’s a credit to Chrissy Harris. We’ve worked with Chrissy for a long time, I’m glad he’s got off target with a goal. I thought it was a great ball from Chrissy Arthur and the header was a great goal to be fair. I was delighted for Chrissy, delighted for the team. It was a tough fought game and I thought we just shaded it, especially with the first half performance.”

Speaking about the team’s fitness after a game in atrocious conditions three days earlier, Maxwell said: “We train them in a certain way here. We’re big on that, away from the football club as well and they’re all just really disciplined, humble, hard working lads, every single one of them.”

“I wouldn’t have anyone who wasn’t anyway. They are proper, proper good lads and they do what we ask. If we tell them to do something, they do, and we’re seeing that. They look mobile, sharp and that’s something that we wanted to drive into the team this season. On Saturday we should have got at least a point and we had to show bounce back ability again, and we’ve done that again, and kept our fortress intact.”

Both wanted to praise the Welling supporters. McMahon said: “Mention for the fans tonight. I thought they were brilliant tonight. Twelfth man. Absolutely superb.” Maxwell added: “Yet again, fantastic. A big thank you from all of us. Brilliant.”

Victory for the Wings ended Leatherhead’s streak of over a year without an away league defeat. “That’s all credit to Leatherhead.” said Maxwell. “It’s a great achievement but this group are special. If any group is going to do something special, it’s this one.”

When Welling played their previous home game against Burgess Hill Town, they won four-two but Maxwell was irked to have conceded twice so the clean sheet against Leatherhead delighted him. He confirmed: “To have a fortress, you can’t have a gung-ho fortress, it’s got to be a lock-out, it’s got to be clean sheet city. I’m going to guess we’ve got the most clean sheets in the league, potentially, and if you’re going to do well in the league, you’ve got to have the most clean sheets.” 

Picture supplied by Steve Blunn.