Welling boss praises bravery of his side as they inflict defeat on Dulwich Hamlet

Peter Taylor praised the Welling United players for their bravery they showed on the ball in their 1-0 victory against Dulwich Hamlet at Champion Hill.

Dipo Akinyemi scored the 56th-minute winner in the National League South derby yesterday.

Welling United manager Taylor said: “It’s much easier doing an interview after a win rather than a 4-1 beating [last time out at Maidstone United]. I couldn’t be happier with the performance.

“The players worked so well as a group. They really did help each other and showed bravery on the ball and at times we defended very well.

“There’s still times where we lost the ball and gave Dulwich a chance, which you mustn’t do because they are such a good team.

“It’s been a difficult start for the boys, that’s where I feel for them a little bit because we are a young group and we’re playing in games that are like massive cup finals.

“It’s so important, we don’t want to be relegated. The start of every match is a nervous situation. But when they start right and it stays 0-0 for a while, their confidence grows.

“All of a sudden we start to see what they’re capable of. Today, we defended better. But we also showed we can pass the ball better. We did that well today.”

Former Dulwich striker Dipo Akinyemi scored the Wings’ winner.

The 24-year-old netted 27 times in 74 appearances for Hamlet across three spells at the club.

Akinyemi added: “I’m very delighted. Coming back to Dulwich, I was here for a long time. They were going to come at us, and we just had to work harder and faster than anyone.

“Today it all paid off, we got the 1-0 win. Everyone covered every inch of this grass today. We made sure we came here on fire and using this new year as a real push.

“It was wonderful [to score against Dulwich], I was speaking to some of the players earlier and said, scoring here would be a real top place for me.”

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD AND DAVE BUDDEN