Wings suffer heavy reverse at National League South leaders Dartford
BY MARK DOIG
It was another disappointing evening for Welling United as they crashed heavily 5-1 at National League South leaders Dartford.
One week earlier, their unbeaten league away run was ended with a 4-1 trouncing at Braintree Town – but their defeat at Princes Road was even heavier.
In the first minute, the Wings might have gone ahead when Dartford goalkeeper Joe Young missed a Yaser Kasim corner and it hit an unsuspecting Manny Parry and went just wide. However, after that, Dartford bombarded the Welling goal with corners and free-kicks.
After 10 minutes, they took full advantage. A Luke Coulson delivery wasn’t cleared, and it fell into the path of Pierre Foneku. Although Kai McKenzie-Lyle made a great block to keep out his initial effort, he followed up to slam it home.
Coulson then had a shot well-gathered by the Welling keeper before Dartford increased their lead. This time McKenzie-Lyle was unable to hold onto a shot from Jack Smith and Davide Rodari finished.
Six minutes before the break, a former Welling player scored against the club for the second consecutive week. Against Braintree it was Alfie Matthews, this time it was Maxwell Statham as he was first to a near-post Coulson corner to flick it home.
Welling manager Warren Feeney made a double change at half-time which included the introduction of new signing Jay Simpson and within eight minutes the Wings pulled one back. Young was closed down by Ade Azeez and hurried his clearance. It struck the former Dartford striker and flew back into the unguarded net.
Young made a fantastic point-blank range block to keep out Jamie Sendles-White’s flying volley but any hopes of Welling getting back into the game were dashed just after the hour mark when McKenzie-Lyle had to rush out to head clear but only nodded it into the path of Smith. He showed great composure and technique to fire back into the empty net.
As much as Welling huffed and puffed, they didn’t look likely to score again and conceded a fifth with three minutes remaining when caught short at the back. Alex Wall led the break and squared for Coulson who placed it beyond the helpless McKenzie-Lyle.
PICTURES: DAVE BUDDEN
Main Pic: Pierre Fonkeu, right, opens the scoring for the Darts
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