Welling 2-1 Eastleigh

Saturday 17th March - Welling 2 Eastleigh 1
Report by Ray Murphy

Welling United lifted themselves into the play off places with this victory over Eastleigh. The Spitfires put up a spirited performance and should really have been in the lead before they found themselves two goals behind.

Ian Oliver returned to the side at the expense of Francis Benali and Rob Marshall also earned himself a recall with Darren Wheeler dropping with Benali to the subs bench.

Eastleigh opened the better of the two sides. Steve Watts set up an early attack with Andy Forbes playing the ball off for Jamie Brown but the striker fired over the bar. A minute later, home goalkeeper Lee Turner saved a Forbes header from a Danny Smith free kick.

Welling’s first chance fell on quarter of an hour when their captain Jamie Day was left free on the edge of the box but he shot tamely at James Pullen. Eastleigh quickly broke to the opposite end forcing a corner from which Steve West saw his header cleared off the line by Des Boateng.

On twenty-seven minutes David Hughes’ free kick was flicked on by West for Forbes to turn and shoot, but again Turner saved his effort. Welling were coming more into the game as Eastleigh failed to take their chances. With thirty-eight minutes played West misjudged a defensive header and Danny Kedwell’s cross field pass was collected by Che Stadhart who saw his shot saved by Pullen. A minute later Eastleigh were behind. The ball having already been played across the Eastleigh box, Leon Solomon sent an inviting cross deep into the area where Day arrived at full stretch to divert a header past Pullen.

Seven minutes into the second period and Eastleigh were two goals behind. A long free kick out of defence by Ben Lewis was headed by Marshall but only to the feet of Day who sent a low drive beyond Pullen for his second goal of the afternoon.

This all led again to Eastleigh having the upper hand of possession. On the hour, Smith’s cross found Forbes whose header from close range was beaten away by Turner. Eastleigh did get themselves back in the game on seventy-five minutes. Marshall’s cross to the far post via a deflection was touched home by Forbes to give Eastleigh a fighting chance in the last quarter of an hour.

Three minutes following his goal, Forbes had a good chance to equalise but he fired over when well placed and soon after a Liam George corner was half cleared but Brown only managed to fire wide.

The last chance of the afternoon fell for Welling, as Kedwell made the most of a mistake in the Eastleigh defence but an excellent stop by Pullen denied the Welling striker what would have been the decisive goal but The Spitfires were unable to break down the home rear guard again and so suffered another single goal defeat.