Thanks Rod Stringer, Kevin Watson, coaches and players for an enjoyable 3 months. Cant wait for next season in the NLS (Dartford)

-- Edited by Riverstown on Sunday 21st of April 2024 11:11:14 AM

I loved the spirit at the match, the Welling Community Choir in great voice on the terraces, and the players once again trying their hardest in a game that will be their last one for Welling for most of the players, as it is clear a total rebuild of attack is needed, and only a few midfielders stand out as retainable, but our defence is outstanding.

So the season is now over ending on a sound performance. We finished 8 points above relegation, and 19 points below the play off spots. The play off spots sound irrelevant to us, but although we will never know for sure one wonders if Rod had been managing us in the 28 games Danny managed us would we have got at least an extra 19 points from those 28 games, and so got a play off spot?

I loved this season as I loved all the dramatic contradictory mystery of the Danny stuff, it is like we played well (apart from attack) and the players had total self belief and commitment, but just couldnt get results. I said to Nigel it is one of my top two seasons of all time and Nigel joked, "You're easily pleased". But it was a really memorable season I wont forget, with some fantastic football. Trying to call it an overall success or a failure isnt really relevant, as it was a failure with Danny, massive success with Rod, as our squad has some massive areas of weakness, yet he still only got beaten twice in 18 games, so far exceeded what he should have got with this squad.

But we are now heading to a new season. In the most recent pre-season one couldnt see where the goals were going to come from, and that carried on for the rest of the season apart from the Sonny Fish spell, so I am looking forward to the next pre-season to get an idea of what we have to look forward to next season. In the past I was confused on who actually chose which players we signed, I guess the moving on of Gary Fiore means Rod has a major say in player recruitment, so I am really looking forward to seeing his team next season.

Yet another battling performance away at Slough. We were under the cosh particularly in the 1st half. Played better in the second half but overall Slough did deserve to win but you know what they didn't! That has been the defining factor under Rod Stringer. We never give up and if necessary we have the character to grind out results and the Slough match didn't matter one jot but we now have a winning mentality. I like the honesty of the post match interviews and the belief and fighting spirit that Rod Stringer has installed in the team. It will be good to have stability next season. Rod and Kevin will I'm sure identify the players they wish to keep, hopefully, those players will want to stay and we have a core to build on. I am confident Rod will build a stronger squad and bring in affective loan signings and will solve our goal scoring issues.

Verdict: Looking forward to next season