Welling United’s final game of the season underlines exactly why they missed out on play-offs
By Mark Doig
Welling United’s final game of the season – a 1-0 defeat at Chippenham Town – was a perfect example of why they fell short of National League South play-off football.
The Wings played a lot of good possession football but it all fell apart in the final quarter of the pitch and they failed to create many chances, only testing Jared Thompson once.
But after last season’s battle against relegation, and the difficult opening to this one, a top-10 finish can be considered as an improvement and a good basis to push on.
Matt Smith had the first chance for Chippenham in the final game but his effort whistled just over the bar.
Jack Parkinson picked out Bradley Goldberg for Welling and he turned well but his shot on the spin went the wrong side of the post.
Chippenham broke the deadlock from one of their few clearcut chances on 18 minutes. As was the case against Bath City on Tuesday, Welling looked prone to counter-attacks and when Smith led the break he found Jake Jackson who passed on to Andy Sandell. He made no mistake when firing beyond Welling goalkeeper Bailey Vose.
Welling’s Jamie Philpot, feeding off scraps, had a diving header saved.
Jake Jebb fired wide before Joe Healy curled over as Welling failed to test Thompson further before the break.
He was called upon to make his only real save immediately after the interval. Philpot held the ball up well before finding Healy. He then played it across to Goldberg, whose shot was turned around the post brilliantly by the Chippenham goalkeeper.
Millwall loanee Philpot headed over in his final game for Welling.
Chippenham were reduced to 10 men with 13 minutes remaining when Jon Beeden had a moment of madness and kicked out at Callum Driver.
Playing against 10 men for the second consecutive away game failed to aid Welling and they could have gone further behind in the closing minutes when Vose did well to save with his legs as Smith burst through.
Welling boss Jamie Coyle said: “We need to go full steam ahead and improve and get in that play-off spot next year.”
Picture: Joe Healy crossing Credit: Dave Budden
