Welling United 0-1 Charlton Athletic - We've shown that we can bounce back from disappointment, says Welling United assistant manager Hugo Langton

Welling United 0 – 1 Charlton Athletic
Location	Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY
Kickoff	20/09/2017 19:45

WELLING UNITED  0-1  CHARLTON ATHLETIC
Kent Reliance Senior Cup Second Round
Wednesday 20^th September 2017
Stephen McCartney reports from Park View Road

WELLING UNITED assistant manager Hugo Langton says his side showed that they have bounced back from their FA Cup defeat at the hands of Haringey Borough at the weekend.

The Wings went into this Kent Reliance Senior Cup tie against a strong Charlton Athletic side in eleventh-place in the Vanarama National League South table with 14 points from 11 games.  They were still smarting from their 2-1 home defeat to a Haringey Borough side in second-place in the Bostik North in The FA Cup Second Qualifying Round.

Jason Euell sent a strong side to Park View Road, including first team players Dillon Phillips, Jonnie Jackson, Mouhamadou-Naby Sarr, Ezri Konsa, Karlan Ahearne-Grant and Joe Aribo and they found it hard to break down a Welling United side that had central midfielder Jack Jebb sent off for a last-man foul three minutes into the second half.

However, French central defender Sarr, 24, sent them through to the Quarter-Finals with a low drive timed at 47 minutes and 13 seconds at the end of the second half.

“First of all, really gutted for the players tonight,” said Langton, who was sent-out to do press conference duties.

“We defended for our lives, put their bodies on the line, they got great shape tonight.

“It took a team three divisions above us, with let’s be honest there’s quite a few of their first team players there tonight.  It took them 93 minutes to break us down from a £2.7m centre half, which is a little bit annoying bearing in mind we played pretty much the whole of the second half with 10 men.

“The players deserve so much credit tonight, especially in line of the disappointment we had at the weekend.

“We bounced back very well tonight so they’re to be congratulated tonight.”

Reflecting on their costly FA Cup exit, Langton replied: “Games like Saturday are tough. Those sorts of results are hard to take and it’s like the old saying, you get hit, can you get back up?  We got back up tonight, just disappointed really that we didn’t take them all the way because if it had finished 0-0, I think it would’ve been justified from our point of view.”

Welling United boss Jamie Coyle demanded a reaction from his side and made four changes to his team tonight and the men in red put in a spirited performance against a Charlton Athletic side that had large chunks of possession.

Welling United fans voted with their feet as only 154 bothered to turn up to watch this County Cup tie.

Charlton Athletic winger Ahearne-Grant burst down the right and cut the ball back to Aribo, who hooked his shot wide of the target from 10-yards inside the opening five minutes.

Aribo passed to Matt Carter, who crossed another ball in from the right and Terrique Anderson shot wide at the near post from 10-yards.

Welling United took nearly 20 minutes to fashion an opening. 

Former Dulwich Hamlet left-back Jamie Mascoll let the ball bounced over his head inside the centre circle and Christian Nanetti drove forward and slipped in Eli Phipps, but his angled drive deflected past the near post.

“I thought Eli Phipps worked himself into the ground. He had a battle up with two big monster centre halves and he’s come out of it with a lot of credit tonight,” said Langton.

“This is a young lad who is on loan from Colchester, who’s 21 and he’s got no real experience of this level and it’s been hard for him for the first few games but tonight, it’s a huge positive. It’s probably wrong just to signal out one player because I thought all of the players were absolutely magnificent tonight.”

But the best chance of the first half fell to Charlton Athletic halfway through the half.

Mascoll won the ball in midfield and sent Ahearne-Grant on his way and the winger sprinted forward for 30-yards before unleashing a right-footed shot against the top of the right-hand post from 12-yards.

“That’s probably the real chance they had,” said Langton.

“We gave the ball away on the halfway line and fair play to the lad, he’s gone on a run and he hasn’t finished it.”

Welling United created an opening when Jebb played the ball out to advanced right-back Connor Dymond, who whipped in a cross towards the near post which saw Christie Pattisson turn and blast his shot over from eight-yards.

Welling United keeper Dillon Barnes watched Carter’s angled drive from the right flash across him and past the far post, as Charlton’s finishing wasn’t up to scratch.

Welling United’s best chance of the entire game arrived on the half-hour mark following their second of four corners.

Dymond floated in a corner from the right and Sean Francis made space inside the penalty area to plant his free header towards goal, which was tipped over by Phillips’ outstretched right hand.

“We’re always a threat from set-plays.  Sean’s got pedigree and he did well tonight,” said Langton.

“Bearing in mind it’s been frustrating for him lately because he hasn’t had an opportunity to play because we feel the back four has been doing really, really well lately, so we weren’t looking to change anything but tonight was a great excuse, excuse isn’t the right word, to get Sean onto the pitch tonight.

“Looking at our team tonight, we ended up with an Academy kid (Ollie Milton) playing up front on his own.  You’ve got Christian Nanetti playing out of position in centre midfield, you’ve got Archie Johnson playing left-back, ok he’s been in the squad and his been in and around us but this is the first time he’s played tonight and give him so much credit.”

Charlton Athletic missed a glorious chance too when Anderson picked up a loose ball in midfield, drove forward before playing the ball out wide to right-back Kenneth Yao, who whipped in a cross for Anderson to guide his free header over the crossbar from 10-yards.

When asked his thoughts at the break, Langton replied: “We just felt as long as we kept our shape that we can perhaps catch them on the counter-attack.

“I actually felt at half-time, that with 11-v-11 it was going to be who could counter-attack the best, who could deal with it so the message was to be prepared to defend when we’ve got the ball higher up the pitch so we’re in a position to be able to deal with any sort of counter-attack and be switched on.”

Welling United faced a mountain to climb when referee Joe Stokes pulled out his red-card to send Jebb off with two minutes and 22 seconds on the clock.

Jebb was only a couple of yards outside his penalty area when he pulled Carter back after losing the ball to the Charlton midfielder and Welling United put in a spirited, resilient show of defending for the rest of the game.

“It was probably a bit careless from Jack,” admitted Langton.

“I thought he was decent in the first half, he was ticking, got us playing and he’s gone looking for the ball. He’s a brave lad in terms of wanting the ball all the time.

“It got stuck underneath his feet, he couldn’t make a decision he wanted to make and fair play to the Charlton lad he’s nicked it from him and I suppose he’s taken one for the team hasn’t he because what can you do?  Allow the lad to score? Luckily it wasn’t in the box. It was only a free-kick.

“When you go down to ten-men against a team like Charlton, do you know what? You accept they’re going to have all of the ball. Let’s just make sure that we’re hard to break down and unfortunately for us it took a £2.7m player to score an absolutely great goal. It was a great goal really, he’s absolutely caught it.”

Ahearne-Grant’s resulting right-footed free-kick from a central position from 20-yards was tipped over the bar by Barnes, 21, who is on loan from Sky Bet League Two side Colchester United.

“I don’t think Dillon Barnes had a great deal to do tonight. I can’t really remember him being at full-stretch,” added Langton.

Aribo swung in the resulting corner, which was met by Jonnie Jackson, who planted his free header over the crossbar at the far post.

With Welling United playing with two banks of four with Phipps up front on his own working tirelessly, later to be replaced by Academy boy Ollie Milton with 11 minutes remaining, it was now up to Charlton Athletic to break their hosts down.

The Welling management team were offering makeshift left-back Archie Johnson plenty of encouragement as Charlton Athletic got the ball out wide in an attempt to pull apart the Wings, who now had Jack Parkinson alongside Francis at the heart of defence.

Aribo slipped the ball in to Anderson, who drilled his shot past the near post as the game reached the hour-mark.

Welling United’s pacy left-winger Jeffery Monakana was an outlet on the break and in the 78^th minute he went on a run, cut into the box but produced a weak shot that was gathered by the visiting keeper.

“Jeffery is a player who before he came to us, he hasn’t been playing too many games and has been training with Sutton United and he’s starting to get into his stride a little bit,” said Langton.

“For plyers like Jeffery and Christie Pattisson it was great for them tonight to get out and have lots of the ball and be positive and drive at people.

“Give them credit as well, as soon as we lost the ball, they worked so hard to get back and be part of the defensive shape.”

Welling United parked the bus for the second half, putting plenty of men behind the ball and this frustrated Charlton, whose finishing was poor until the final 10 minutes.

There were numerous of Welling players in front of substitute midfielder Freddy Yao by the time he sliced his shot harmlessly wide of the target from outside the penalty area.

His next attempt was better, though, stinging Barnes’ gloves with a right-footed drive from 25-yards, the keeper spilling the shot before the ball was cleared towards safety.

Charlton Athletic missed a glorious chance when Freddy Yao played the ball out wide to Kenneth Yao, who whipped in a cross towards the near post but substitute winger Alfie Doughty flicked his shot into Barnes’s hands on the goal-line from six-yards.

“Charlton had a great chance later on in the game from a cross from the right and someone was at the near post but the guy didn’t catch it very well,” said Langton.

“They had a few efforts on goal that were badly taken and a few over the bar or snapped wide but I can’t actually remember Dillon really being at full stretch.”

But Charlton Athletic deservedly snatched the victory with a last-gasp winner, courtesy of Sarr, who has commanded transfer fees totalling £2.7m.

It was a good slick move from Charlton as Freddy Yao and Carter linked up in the final third and Doughty played the ball forward to Anderson, who cut the ball back for Sarr to place his first time left-footed shot nestling into the bottom left-hand corner from 22-yards.

“It’s disappointing, had it gone to penalties and then it becomes a lottery, then who knows? But we’re just disappointed that we didn’t get that far,” said Langton.

“First and foremost the guy’s built like a toilet door isn’t he? Wow, what a defender he is. He’s like a brick wall isn’t he?  But I guess if you’re going to cost £2.7m you can pull that out to get your team out of the brown stuff in the 93^rd minute then fair play to him.

“The main thing we got out tonight we’ve shown that we can bounce back from disappointment. We’ve shown that as a squad we’re all together. We’ve shown that we’ve got other players that can come in and do jobs that perhaps they don’t want to do.  They care about the team, they care about the disappointment from Saturday, which wasn’t nice. It’s been a horrible few days, I won’t lie to you.

“When you turn up tonight and see Charlton’s team-sheet and you see that they’ve got a lot of their first team squad players playing, part of you think’s ‘oh crikey, this is all we need’ and on the back after the disappointment of the weekend you almost hope that with no disrespect to Charlton, they play some of their less experienced players, some actual under 23 players.  I know they had a game on Monday at Crewe, so we dealt with it magnificently, absolutely magnificently.

“If you’re going to beat us, you’re going to have to break us down and it just took that one moment unfortunately for us in the 93^rd minute to put the game to bed.”

Welling United travel to seventh-placed Havant & Waterlooville on Saturday.

“Very, very hard place to go, I’ve been there loads of times,” said Langton.

“Lee Bradbury’s team is decent, he’s got some very good players in there and we’ve got to, not just Saturday, but just start showing every game now the desire to do your job and be proud to be wearing the Welling shirt.”

Welling United: Dillon Barnes, Connor Dymond, Archie Johnson, Olumide Dujoaiye, Ian Gayle (Jack Parkinson 46), Sean Francis, Christie Pattisson, Jack Jebb, Eli Phipps (Ollie Milton 79), Christian Nanetti, Jeffery Monakana (Raphal Duyile 79).
Subs: Ben Jefford, Alfie Fulbrook

Booked: Olumide Dujojaiye 74, Jack Parkinson 90

Sent Off: Jack Jebb 48

Charlton Athletic: Dillon Phillips, Kenneth Yao, Jamie Mascoll, Matt Carter, Mouhamadou-Naby Sarr, Ezri Konsa (Roger Johnson 58), Karlan Ahearne-Grant (Alfie Doughty 59), Jonnie Jackson, Joe Dodoo (Freddy Yao 70), Joe Aribo, Terrique Anderson.

Goal: Mouhamadou-Naby Sarr 90

Booked: Terrique Anderson 35, Matt Carter 69, Roger Johnson 82

Attendance: 154
Referee: Mr Joe Stokes (Dover)
Assistants: Mr Jack Owen (Sevenoaks) & Mr Aaron Conn (Gillingham)
Fourth Official: Mr Constantine Hatzidakis (Bromley)

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