Welling United 2 Tonbridge Angels 1

Match 57/22/2064 - Sunday, 1st January 2023 - National League South

Welling United (2) 2 Maloney 14 Azeez 45
Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 Gard 23
Attendance: 932

Admission: Pass
Programme: Not purchased
Mileage: 80/4,082

A family bereavement had already cast a cloud over Christmas and two defeats over the festive period to Welling United failed to add even a slither of sunshine to dispel the personal gloom.

Irritatingly, as with the game at Longmead on Boxing Day, the Angels deserved to take something from the game but Welling are blessed with Ade Azeez, who only needs a sniff of a chance.

Jay Saunders made two changes from the Boxing Day game with Tom Parkinson in for the injured Ben Swift and Joe Turner returning to the starting XI after his hernia operation for Louis Collins.

Park View Road is finally a ground that might soon be in the throes of some loving care. The far end is now condemned and out of use, as is the underneath of the main stand which meant that the teams emerged from groundsharers Erith and Belvedere’s dressing rooms.

Sadly, what doesn’t change is Tonbridge’s inability to win a game there, with no win ever recorded against a Welling side.

Welling started the brighter and in the fourth minute Jamie White hit the crossbar following a free kick and three minutes later another Wings free kick went inches wide of Jonny Henly’s right hand post.

Angels simply couldn’t get the ball down and create any kind of cohesive play and there was an air of inevitability about Welling opening the scoring after 14 minutes. A cross from the left was touched back into the path of Taylor Maloney whose shot from 20 yards flew into the top corner.

Shaken out of their early lethargy, the Angels settled and started to give the Welling defence something to think about. After 23 minutes, Devonte Aransibia moved the ball out wide to Scott Wagstaff, whose cross was partially cleared but only to Lewis Gard who moved to the right to strike between the goalkeeper and his near post from a fairly acute angle.

Four minutes later, Jack Wood was denied by a brilliant last ditch challenge but it was Welling that regained their lead a minute before the break when Daniel Nkrumah, a fine prospect on loan from Leyton Orient, turned Jamie Fielding on the left to put in a cross that Azeez met at the near post.

Gard had an opportunity in first half added time but his deflected shot was well saved by Myles Roberts.

After 63 minutes, Papadoplous hit the post for the hosts but from then until the final whistle it was the Angels that were the dominant side. A shot from substitute Tommie Fagg, dipped late and only just cleared the bar and when in the final seconds of the game the ball fell inviting to Ruben Soares-Junior it seems a well-earned point was to be had, but as the ball sailed over the bar it signalled just another frustrating afternoon at Park View Road.