I have always thought us, Ebbsfleet and Havant are the three top teams in this division, with the other two having a headstart over us due to them retaining so many from last season, whereas we have a virtual new team still gelling as Warren sees the areas that still need improvement, with this season as a launching pad for our great next season, hopefully retaining as many players as possible now we are attractive to join as we now offer a top quality pitch to play on, offer high table football. Warren has the view we should fear no one, and having now drawn against the top 2, and being unlucky in not winning both, he is proved right again. The referee clearly likes to be the centre of attention, a match report on one of his earlier games said, Referee Ben Atkinson, who never looked in control throughout, added eight minutes of stoppage time and true to form he conjured up 5 and 9 minutes stoppage time in the halves of the Ebbsfleet match.

Love our goal against Ebbsfleet, against St Albans we posed little threat as a team as the strikers were isolated up front, a big Welling midfield gap behind them. That was fixed against Ebbsfleet, as shown by the goal which had 5 Welling players in the 7 pass goal, pulling Ebbsfleet apart with a move from right side to central to left side back to central back to right side and then the shot! Such a shame that the sendings off meant we had to drop back to defend, rather than keep pressing forward in numbers, otherwise we could have pushed for the win.

When we conceded the self inflicted first two goals against St Albans we fell apart, as Welling didnt have the collective knowledge of how to respond and fight back. It is similar to what is happening with Liverpool, who are also a bit lost on how to fight back, as they are so used to being in charge of games, Klopp told the press the other day, I spoke to the boys in a similar way to how I speak to you, I dont know how many times I have to say we need a reaction. The first goal has an impact on both teams. They were flying and we were somewhere in between. They used that for the second goal. We could have defended much better. Its football and you have to accept it. On a day like this when it starts like this, its important to fight your way through. That fighting spirit was back for Welling, a player sent off, we responded perfectly, another player off, equally strong response by us, positively responding and fighting our way through the game. Drawing against unbeaten top of the table Ebbsfleet when we were two players short will show the Welling guys what happens when you fight for what you believe. I saw the Erith and Belvedere match on Saturday, who went in having won their first 11 league games, and unexpectedly crashed 1 - 5 to Tonbridge and Erith just had no idea how to respond and get back into the game, as they were so used to controlling games. But as the crap St Albans performance showed, one has bad days, but then it is how one responds that counts.

Apart from the Dartford game we have a good run of more clearly winnable matches for the next couple of months, so should climb higher up the top 10. We have had a tough fixture start having already played 7 of the top 11 teams, but have now been in the top 10 for the past 3 months, and are still unbeaten away in the league.

Wellingmarshmellow wrote:

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The first sending off was because he called the ref a f*cking c*nt

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 Indeed, and it is deserving of a red card. The problem is that a Havant coach used those exact words to a referee who was ten yards away and looking at him a few weeks ago, and that particular referee did nothing. Anyone who says that to a referee (or linesman) should be sent off for it and once that becomes the norm, people will stop doing it. At the moment there is no consistency.

If James Dunne was deemed to have impeded the referee on purpose, surely that should have been a straight red card rather than a second yellow card.

I don't understand why the ref stopped play when sending Dunne off rather than playing the advantage for the off the ball incident, as Ebbsfleet were in a dangerous attacking position. Dunne's touch of the ref wasn't on the film of the match, so I don't know if it even happened or not, and if it did if it was deliberate or accidental, I get the feeling the ref likes to make big decisions to be the centre of attention - sendings off, tons of extra time, penalty awards.

I noticed earlier in the season our opponents were being more match wise than us in claiming dodgy free kicks, but we have become more streetwise as the season has gone on. So I was amused at our bookings for timewasting, particularly Sam's miraculous recovery right at the end against Ebbsfleet, and Chi's Oscar winning roll back onto the oitch, and am glad that the ref finally blew the whistle, otherwise we would still be playing for time, as the attention seeking ref manages to find three days of extra time!