Welling United (0) 2 Adigun 68 Fish 90+2
Tonbridge Angels (2) 2 Odokonyero 27,45
Attendance: 570
Admission: £10 Senior
Mileage: 72/5,867
The Park View Road hoodoo continues and lost is the best chance we might ever have of breaking it.
A month ago, Dover’s first half performance was possibly the worst I’ve seen in the National League South but, somehow, Tonbridge put on a second half performance that almost allowed Dover to retrieve the game. Welling, in the first half of this turgid encounter, did their level best to surpass Dover’s ineptitude but a second period of complacency from the Angels saw them earn a point and even make a case that they were unlucky not to win.
Jay Saunders has long bemoaned the Angels slow starts to second half and when Welling halved the deficit with a great strike it was only a matter of time, albeit into added time, before they struck again. I don’t think there was an Angels’ fan present that didn’t see it coming and that it came from ex-Angel Sonny Fish rubbed salt into the wound.
This is likely to be the last visit to Park View Road for a couple of seasons as the decaying stadium is bulldozed for a development that will include over 100 flats. Certainly the present Health Hazard Stadium won’t be missed.
On a day as grey as its environment, Jay Saunders had new signing from Torquay Ryan Hanson on the bench whilst Paris Lock and Jernade Meade missed out through injury with Lewis Gard and Liam Vincent returning.
The first 25 minutes were a poor advert for National League South as both sides seemingly sought to negate the cow patch of a pitch by ensuring that the ball was never on it. Endless bouts of head tennis ensued.
Jamie Fielding, who has endured a stop-start season through injury, succumbed to an early knock to be substituted by Francis Mampolo who had an early opportunity but his shot was wide.
Tonbridge, deservedly at least on the passage of play, took the lead on 27 minutes when Welling lost the ball in the middle of the pitch to a Scott Wagstaff challenge and a single pass forward saw Nathan Odokonyero get between the two central defenders to plant a shot from the edge of the box past Reice Charles-Cook.
On the half-hour a cross in from the right from Sean Shields found Mampolo, albeit stretching, but in front of goal and he couldn’t control his volley and the ball sailed over.
Tonbridge had their first scary moment of the half when, on 40 minutes, a Welling corner found the head of the veteran Joe Ellul but his goal bound effort was cleared from the line by Gard.
On the stroke of half-time, Tonbridge doubled their advantage and seemingly took control of the game. A cross from the right from Mampolo to the far post saw Jordan Higgs cushion a header into the path of Shields whose snap shot was parried by Charles-Cook but Odokonyero following up tucked home from close range.
Two-nil up against a woeful Welling side, a first ever win at Park View Road almost looked assured but whatever was said in the respective dressing rooms during the break a completely different game unfolded in the second half.
As Tonbridge back-pedalled, Welling were winning all the mini battles and although it took a brilliant strike from Jason Adigun on 68 minutes to reduce the deficit, it was one that had been a long time coming.
The goal failed to wake the Angels from their slumbers and although Kodi Lyons-Foster steered a header wide from a good position with three minutes remaining there was a sense of inevitability when a cross from the right was turned in at the near post by Fish.
One final chance saw Shields hit the bar but in the final moments it was Tonbridge that was hanging on desperately for the final whistle.
I’ve walked away from grounds disappointed with results, Hemel immediately springs to mind, but not since the Haringey FA Cup debacle have I actually been angry, on this occasion I was bloody livid. Supporters forgive poor performances, they happen, but when it is complacency at the root of it, then it is much harder to stomach.
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