We bossed the first half, but the second half Dartford took control, and I wondered what the difference had been. A Dartford fan put his finger on the change, saying, "Second half it felt as though the team played ten yards further forward and it helped a lot. Chin deservedly got his goal and was clear player of the match in the end. The midfield pressed more because they were further up the field and from there we put some good passing combinations together (Allen, Coulson and Chin seemed to be involved a lot more)."
So hopefully in the away rematch we don't fall into the trap of defending too deep, and gradually dropping deeper and deeper, as maybe playing like this away is why there is such a difference between our great home form and our disappointing away form?
Cannot believe it. They said 3 minutes left and Smudge was getting agitated so I took him out. Do not care how it came about just thankful it went in. In future Smudge will have a 10 minute break at half time for radio wings.
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Well done - could have been 3 points today, Pap's hit the post and the referee, decided a trip in the box was a dive, from the view I had a stonewall pen for me. as always our fans were great and proved to be the 12th man. Happy New Year everyone!
That made a very pleasant change.
We deserved more that two defeats over the Christmas period.
Really expected the worst today.
Very happy, and wish you all a HNY.
A point gained so late on but against such a poor Dartford side I just wish we had a bit more quality and we would have had all three. Starting line up a bit strange and the subs were too late in my opinion. Not going to dig out anyone after getting a point and to see the lads at the end showed what it meant to them, just need to show that passion a bit more during the 90 in all games. Shame that we really needed three points after recent results when a point away would have been very acceptable. Loads of games in January - need to take this point forward.
-- Edited by GaryH on Saturday 30th of December 2023 08:41:59 PM
Much better today but still a bit shot shy. Dominated the 2nd half but we seem to hit that invisible barrier across the 18 yard box. We just dont let fly when there is a clear path to goal. We have got to try and put an end product to our attacking moves. Dont see us getting out of the relegation zone but lets go down fighting. I never ever thought this team would be in such a precarious position. Praying for a miracle.
Well done - could have been 3 points today, Pap's hit the post and the referee, decided a trip in the box was a dive, from the view I had a stonewall pen for me. as always our fans were great and proved to be the 12th man. Happy New Year everyone!
12th man, you barely get more than 12 at home and you certainly dont make much noise. whole game was poor, were poor and we know it. you deserved at least a draw , yes.
I dont think anyone wants you guys to go down, in different circumstances with better sides our games can be quite electric.
We played well at times and had our moments. We just lacked that little bit of quality in finishing off some decent attacks. I didnt think Dartford were up to much and we were the better team but as mentioned lacking that bit of quality to score. Winterbottom made a couple of good saves and kept us in the game.
I still think the team has some wins in them as we showed against Yeovil but we need to start picking up 3pts. Never give up hope while we are still in the fight but we are behind on points on the scorecard. Up the Welling.
There seems to be a bit of a low key response to this game, maybe because it was a draw rather than a win, but actually in my view at least this was a really exciting and promising breakthrough game for us.
I love second halves of seasons, as one hopefully learns from the first meeting, so in the second half of the season when meeting again one can hopefully put those lessons into effect. This rematch against Dartford shows Danny learned lessons from the first meeting, and successfully applied them in the rematch. We defended far too deep first time out, in the rematch corrected that and we pushed up, and if we can stick to that high pressing approach in our other games in the second half of the season we will turn the negative first half season results around. I have always thought we do too many backwards and sideways passes, which are bad as they dont put the other team under pressure, and successful teams constantly pressurise. So I was pleased to see Danny was really pushing the team to play the ball forwards, as if they ever get to the stage of always looking for forward passes, and getting in position to receive a forward pass, then that will be a massive step forward.
I have promoted having two in attack, and we played that in the rematch, and it worked perfectly. There was an additional benefit to playing two up front I hadn't considered until watching the match yesterday. I realised when we play 1 up front the other side only need to have 2 defenders covering him, so they then have 8 players attacking us, and it is a hard job defending against 8. But if we play with 2 up front they need 3 back defending, which only leaves 7 attacking for them, and it is much easier defending against 7 than against 8. So another way proving that attack is the best form of defence.
It was great watching Kain and Tristan as they worked well, when one created a loose ball the other was close enough to pick it up, whereas when we play 1 up front there is no one to get those loose balls. At times they played very far apart, almost like 2 individual lone strikers, and that didnt work as well as when they played more closely together.
The other really big thing that struck me was that we played with so much constant pace, that horrible slow Chippenham game was put behind us, we were playing high tempo all match long, and Dartford couldnt keep pace. So unlike the first meeting where we controlled the first half and they controlled the second half, in the rematch they never really got into the game as our high line and fast play made us hard to match. I know Dartford fans are keen for a change of manager, and their players are equally disenchanted with him constantly throwing them under the bus, and when you see he played George Alexander on the wing, then played him as a lone striker, you realise how lucky we are to only see them under Dowson a couple of times a year.
Danny has said in interview there are going to be some player changes, so it does feel positive, we are not sticking to what didnt work first half, we are playing in a different way, different formation, different internsity, different pressing, hopefully not just in the Dartford rematch but in future games, and some different players coming in. The 4th from bottom team last season was relegated with 48 points, so 49 points may be enough to keep us up. Stay up the Wings!
A draw at Dartford felt like a win and it was enjoyable to see. Been there twice this season and haven't seen us get beaten on either occasion so I take that as a positive especially as Welling have lost at Prince's Park every other season I've been there. In reality though we are 8 points adrift with other teams having games in hand too so I still can't see Welling United staying up unfortunately. I thought a draw was a fair result. I thought Welling United's biggest failing was failing to take shots on when they had the opportunity. Always looked for a pass. That could be a lack of confidence.
It is pleasing to read that the majority of my fellow fans want Danny Bloor to stay on as a manager even if we get relegated. I have been calling for that for many seasons and with many different managers as I believe the key should be stability without an ever revolving door of players and managers coming and going. If we can start next next season with a core of players no matter if we are in National League South or Isthmian Premier hopefully we won't be playing catch with every other club who already have the nucleus of their squad established.
I spoke at length with Harvey Bradbury at the match and he wished Welling United well and said he genuinely hoped Welling United stay in National League South. I thought that was very generous in spirit of him considering a large majority of supporters were vile to him when he was with the club and all he was doing was his best in a struggling team just like this seasons players are. I'm sure no one steps onto a football wanting to play badly or to lose.
Verdict: Good effort but seriously doubt it will be enough
There were tons of very positive changes we made in how we played this game so it gives confidence for the remaining games.
To be safe we need 29 points from the remaining possible 63 points. I know 8 points is a big gap, but if we can close the gap by 2 points a month we'd be safe by the end of the season.
We got 20 points first half of the season, only 5 points below our survival target of 25 points at the half way stage, so not that far adrift, fine in the circumstances for a brand new team, so now need 30 points in the second half.
The first half of the season kicked off with us getting no points from our first 4 games, and playing less well than the more settled team.
In the second half of the season we have improved over that start and already got a point in the first 2 games, and could well have got more points in the 2 Dartford games. We played with experience and purpose in these 2 games, so are doing better than we started the first half season.
Thanks for that Jimmie, I've succumbed again. I am sure there are hundreds of Wings supporters totally unaware of the sad situation we are in now benefitting from your post.
".... and could well have got more points in the 2 Dartford games." But we didn't did we? Another two minutes out of my life.
bexleylion, for a guy who says he doesn't read my posts you spend a lot of time commenting on them!
We all know the tricky situation we are in, I am just saying some welcome positivity, that would be nice for you to have too, saying this second half of the season gives us a great chance to fix the shortcomings of the first half, and that an 8 point gap is recoverable. For example, Taunton have 4 games in hand and an 8 point advantage, but have big money problems and lots of their better players have recently jumped ship from them, so that gap is closable.
