Belvedere Youth  1 – 4  Welling United

Welling Team 

22. Ollie Green

2.   Chris Dunphy

3.   Ed Willoughby

4.   Charlie Bertuello

5.   Joel Thompson

6.   Paul Taylor

7.   Mark Eaton

8.   Matt Vitty

9.   Richard Stevens

10. James Cummings

11. Rishi Nankani

subs 

12. Sam Wilson (Capt)

14. Josh Smith

15. Charlie Hookway

16.  Tom Townsend

17.  Ian Brooke

Scorers: Rishi Nankani (33, 60) Charlie Hookway (68) Ian Brooke (75)

The Under 16’s notched up their second League Cup Group win in appalling conditions last Sunday afternoon.  It was obvious from the outset that the conditions were going to have a significant impact on the match with the rain getting harder, the intermittent wind getting stronger, and the pitch getting boggier as each minute passed.

Playing uphill, Welling started the match strongly, constantly putting pressure on the Belvedere defence.  There were several opportunities created which were not taken advantage of and it wasn’t until three quarters of the way through the half that the deadlock was broken with a Nankani strike which the keeper couldn’t quite prevent from crossing the line. 

Any Belvedere attacks were capably dealt with by the Thompson led defence and at half time Welling went in leading by the only goal.

Half time   Belvedere Youth  0 – 1 Welling United

Welling continued to dominate the match in the second half but it wasn’t until the 60th minute that they added to the scoreline when a long ball from Thompson found Nankani and he coolly lobbed the keeper without breaking his stride. 

With substitutions and the use of the rolling substitute it was difficult to keep track of the ever changing Welling side in this half.  However, whichever players were on they remained the dominant side with the substitutes fitting in seamlessly.  Two of the substitutes managed to get on the score sheet, Hookway who played a one two off the keeper and Brooke who slotted past the keeper to put Welling four up. 

Belvedere managed a consolation goal on full time when a shot was well saved by Green only for the rebound to be slotted home by a player who looked suspiciously offside.

Unlike last week the standard of refereeing was in my opinion abysmal.

Ken Brooke’s post match comment was “It was another good, solid performance, with enough football played to show that confidence is growing, and the whole squad is very strong.  The only thing missing was "clinical" finishing, which if we had taken more of our chances we would have increased our goal difference.”