Tonbridge Angels 0 Welling United 1

Match 55/22/2062 - Monday, 26th December 2022 - National League South

Tonbridge Angels (0) 0
Welling United (0) 1 Azeez 54
Attendance: 1,270

Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 38/3,964

The buzz words of the moment from Premier League managers down to those in Non-League, including our own Jay Saunders and his counterpart at Maidstone United, Hakan Hayrettin, are “fine margins”. If ever a game was won, or lost, on a fine margin it was this one. Biased I might be, but not one-eyed enough to claim that Tonbridge deserved to win this game, but they certainly didn’t deserve to lose it and, moreover than not, those fine margins are decided by a player with that little bit of extra sharpness in front of goal. Such players are few and far between at Step Two and should you have one, you are paying a pretty penny to retain those services.

Welling United have one, Ade Azeez and coupled with Stefan Payne, they form one of the most potent partnerships in the division. One moment of quality from Azeez and some stout defending, something Welling have not been renowned for this season saw the visitors home.

A bumper Boxing Day crowd of 1,270 were treated to a decent afternoon’s entertainment, albeit that the majority went home disappointed with the result, but hopefully not the performance.

Jay Saunders made two changes from the side thumped last time out by Weymouth. Louis Collins came in for Dajon Golding, who as left the club and Jamie Fielding replaced Tariq Hinds.

An early chance for Welling saw a corner cleared but as the ball was returned, the ex-Gillingham man, Payne failed to find a connection from in front of goal.

Payne and Azeez combined well after 10 minutes with a cross from the former taken off the toes of his partner by Fielding.

Tonbridge’s first chance of the game came on 17 minutes when a low cross from Fielding wasn’t collected by Myles Roberts, who then saved well from Jack Wood before the ball was belted to safety.

Another chance fell the Angels way, 10 minutes later, when a corner from the left was met with a header from Fielding that landed at the feet of Jordan Greenidge, but as the striker tried to shoot on the turn he missed the ball altogether.

Tonbridge were now carving out the better of the chances with a Devonte Aransibia effort blocked and a Sonny Miles shot saved by ex-Angels loanee, Roberts.

As the game entered its final moments before the break it became a little tetchy with a scuffle breaking out following a foul on Aransibia that brought a yellow card for the Welling offender and this was followed by a yellow for Scott Wagstaff for a foul on Daniel Nkrumah. Deep into added time there were big calls for a penalty as Greenidge went down under a challenge from Roberts, advancing to the corner of his 18 yard box, but the referee decided that the Tonbridge striker had dived and issued a yellow card.

Welling got their noses in front after 54 minutes when Azeez was involved at the beginning of a move that saw the ball swept along the line to Nkrumah, whose inch-perfect cross was met by Azeez to cushion a volley past Jonny Henly from the edge of the six yard box.

Tonbridge pressed hard for an equaliser with Collins firing wide and a far post header from Greenidge brought a good, low save from Roberts just past the hour. Aransibia also saw a dipping effort from outside of the box, touched onto the bar by Roberts, who was obviously enjoying his return to Longmead.

The visitors had a great chance to put the game to bed on 72 minutes when a wonderful bit of work and pass from Azeez sent Payne clear, one-on-one with Henly, who advanced to edge of his box but Payne slipped the ball past him, only for his shot to rebound off the post.

In the desperate final seconds of time added, Henly was sent forward to add more than just nuisance value to the attack and first he met the corner with a header; then two more shots blocked and away for another corner. This time Henly met the ball cleanly with his head and it took a good save from Roberts to turn it over from underneath his crossbar and there was no time left for the resultant corner.

Fine margins …