Welling Town 1 Tunbridge Wells 2

Match 17/19/1741 - Wednesday, 21st August 2019 - SCEFL Premier

Welling Town (0) 1 O'Neill 69
Tunbridge Wells (0) 2 Sahdadow 57 Froggatt 67
Attendance: 81

Admission: £4
Programme: £2
Mileage: 80/1,265

There is a strange smell following Tunbridge Wells at present. It has been a while so it’s difficult to identify but it is a whiff of optimism.

New management, a major shakeup of the playing staff has brought immediate, albeit early season, dividends.

This hard-fought win over newly-promoted Welling Town at Bayliss Avenue was a third in the spin elevating them to the top of the table.

Richard Styles has built a team with a solid spine, the two central defenders, captain Freeman Rogers and Chris Lawal were outstanding with old favourite Jake Beecroft bossing the midfield and Jason Thompson continues to be a handful up top.

Between the sticks, young goalkeeper, Tommy Taylor, who it was reported had a stunning game in the weekend win over Fisher, was left with a far more comfortable evening.

The hosts, who came into the game following a fine win at Bearsted, had the early momentum with Adam O’Neill and Nwitua firing over but once the got into their stride the Wells held the upper hand with Jordan Wells seeing a header deflected away for a corner and good work from James Nurden, Danny Powell steered a header wide.

After Welling had a bit of a purple period, Powell was narrowly wide after being set up by Wells.

The opening minutes of the second half saw Jason Thompson head wide and Welling’s Oliver Milton test Taylor before, after 57 minutes, Euan Sahadow’s cross-cum-shot deceived Jack Moore to find the far corner. Shot or cross, only the scorer will know.

Tunbridge Wells took full control of the game with the encouragement of the goal and Sahadow, and Chris Lawal might have added to the score before Josh Froggatt came off the bench to score into the bottom corner with his first touch of the ball after 67 minutes.

Thoughts that the game had been put to bed were quickly dispelled when O’Neill was sent clear to fire past the advancing Taylor.

Both sides had a couple of chances to add to the scoring but the Wells held out to make it three in a row. There’s a long way to go but it’s a great start towards turning that whiff of optimism into the sweet smell of success.