Welling United 1-1 Team Bath - Ford rues bad week

Fifth-placed Wings could have cemented their place in the final play-off berth in the Blue Square South table, but they followed up their 3-1 defeat to Bishop’s Stortford at the weekend, with a disappointing draw against Team Bath tonight.

Team Bath had actually scored both goals tonight, as a thumping header from central midfielder Matt Thorne gave the Kent side an early lead.

But one goal was never going to be enough, and the visitors levelled through the lively Takami Aki with twelve minutes remaining.

“I thought it was a shocking performance,” fumed Ford, when speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.

“I feel sorry for the fans’ who paid their money to watch that today.”

Ford, who made four changes from Saturday, saw his side create the first chance of a disappointing game, inside the opening eight minutes.

Lee Blackburn’s right-footed free-kick was swung in from the left and Team Bath goalkeeper Darren Chitty punched the ball to Delando Smith and his left-footed drive from 12-yards deflected towards goal, but the goalkeeper got down low to turn the ball aside.

But the Wings broke the deadlock after fifteen minutes, courtesy of a goal that any striker would’ve been proud with.

Blackburn whipped in another right-footed free-kick, this time from the right, some 30-yards from goal, and this was met by a thumping header from Thorne, which left his goalkeeper rooted to the spot as the ball flew into the right-hand corner of his own net.

Team Bath created a couple of half-chances with right-back Matt Lock firing a left-footed 25-yard drive over Clark Masters’ crossbar and then the goalkeeper got down low to his left to prevent striker Shaun Benison beating him at his near post.

Welling United striker, Charlie Sheringham and right-sided midfielder, Sanchez Ming unleashed right-footed drives from outside the visitors’ penalty area, which flew just over.

Unfortunately, for Welling United’s second lowest league crowd of the season, the second half was a hard-fought affair, with not much goalmouth incident as both sides failed to find the final ball.

Quiet Wings striker, Loui Fazackerley blasted the ball out of the ground when released through on goal after 53 minutes and fans had to wait until the 68^th minute to see Team Bath’s Ben Thomson crack a left-footed drive from 25-yards, which deflected into Masters’ grateful arms.

Sheringham’s second and last effort on goal arrived two minutes later when he latched onto a ball through the heart of Team Bath’s defence and after muscling Gary Warren off the ball, his right-footed drive was never going to trouble the goalkeeper.

Masters plucked the ball out of the air, following Matt Coopers’ looping header from Marc Canham’s free-kick, but a classy strike gave Team Bath a point with twelve minutes left.

Aki cut in from the left and from a central position, and with Welling defenders flat-footed, he drilled a right-footed shot from 20-yards past Masters to find the bottom right-hand corner.

The visitors had a chance to steal victory when a move down the right involving substitute Mike Parrott and Matt Lock opened up the Welling defence, but substitute Dean Smith lifted the ball just over from an acute angle.

Shot-shy Welling had to wait until stoppage time for their next effort on goal, but substitute Dorian Smith was never going to trouble Chitty with a downward header, following Ryan Johnson’s cross from the right.

Ford was an unhappy man, especially as his side travel to league leaders Chelmsford City on Saturday, with the possibility of being caught by teams below them.

He fumed: “We’ve done ok up until recently, but just as you think, I’ve been in management long enough to know, as soon as you’re going right, someone’s always going to kick you, pull the carpet from underneath you.

“Moses (Ademola) being taken back to Brentford, that was out of our hands, and we’ve had a couple of suspensions and suddenly we went off the boil and we’ve got to get back on an even keel.”

Assistant, Jimmy Dack, gave the players the hairdryer treatment out on the pitch after fans had emptied the stadium following the final whistle - and Ford wasn’t happy either.

“I’ve been quite good with the lads, I haven’t given them too many rollickings because they’re a young side (and) rollicking and hairdryers don’t go down too well, but I wasn’t happy with them at half-time today and Saturday,” said Ford.

And Ford knows exactly where the problem lies.

“To be honest, we’ve got to get some clean sheets, that is where our problem is at the moment. We can’t seem to get a clean sheet,” explained Ford.

“If you get clean sheets, you’ve got half a loaf already but that’s where we are at the moment. We’re not defending properly and it’s not just the back four, the back five, it’s the whole team.

“They’ve got to learn, have got to cover each other a little bit better, we’re not winning enough second balls, they’re not passing it enough.

“I could go on and on and bore quite a few people. There’s quite a lot of things that are wrong at the moment.”

Failure to pick up maximum points at Park View Road this week has hurt Ford.

“We’ve blown two home games, really where we could’ve got six points,” he said. “We’ve picked up one out of six.

“That’s not play-off form, so we’ve got to pick it up and make sure we pick up more three pointers.”

Welling United: Clark Masters, Ryan Johnson, Sonny Cobbs, Jack Parkinson (Dorian Smith 66), Graeme Andrews, Tony Sinclair, Sanchez Ming, Lee Blackburn, Loui Fazackerley, Delando Smith (Orlando Smith 57).
Subs: Rob Quinn, Matthew McEntegart, Richard Stevens.

Goal: Matt Thorne 15 (og)

Booked: Sonny Cobbs 72, Dorian Smith 90

Team Bath: Darren Chitty, Matt Lock, Greg Lake, Matt Thorne (Dean Smith 60), Gary Warren, Sami El-Abd, Takami Aki, Marc Canham, Shaun Benison, Matt Cooper, Ben Thomson (Mike Parrott 75).
Subs: Josh Llewellyn, Andy Caton, Zake Merridith.

Goal: Takami Aki 78

Booked: Greg Lake 81

Attendance: 426
Referee: Mr Ian Rathbone (Northampton)
Assistants: Mr Steven Connor (Great Notley, Essex) & Mr Michael Jarvis (Braintree, Essex)