Welling goal drought extended after 1-0 loss to Bath City

BY MARK DOIG

Danny Bloor’s Welling United’s struggle to score goals cost them dearly when defeated 1-0 by Bath City on Saturday.

Their blank means that the Wings have gone more than three-and-a-half games without a goal, a total of 342 minutes.

For the second consecutive match they were at least equals with sides in the National League South top three until getting into the final third of the pitch. On Tuesday at Worthing, they more than matched their opponents until going behind with 20 minutes remaining. Then, against Bath, they played the better football but were unable to find the net.

Ben Winterbottom had to make an early intervention by pushing away Scott Wilson’s shot. Lewis White shot over for Welling before Dominic Odusanya drew a comfortable save out of Ollie Wright.

Bath went ahead in the 20th minute. Wilson flicked on Ewan Clark’s cross and although the angle was tight, Jordan Thomas gave Winterbottom no chance with a drive that went in off the bar.

After that, Winterbottom’s only action was playing as a sweeper with Welling playing out from the back. Antony Papadopoulos had a long-range shot off target and Jephte Tanga fired over from out wide.

As the players and coaches went off the pitch at half time, Bath manager Jerry Gill remonstrated with referee Robert Ablitt too forcibly about an earlier yellow card and was shown a red card. Under this season’s new laws that meant that he was not allowed to watch the remainder of the match or conduct post-match interviews on the pitch.

When play resumed, Lema Crossley’s fierce low drive was parried by Wright with nobody following up to tuck it home.

Thomas and Wilson were both off target for Bath but they were content to protect their lead by sitting back and crowding out the Wings. Kain Adom and David Kamara were introduced with just over 15 minutes remaining before Amadou Kassarate was brought on with nine minutes left. One minute later, the visitors won their first and only corner of the match which came to nothing.

Two of the Welling replacements were involved in attacks which might have ended in an equaliser but Welling were unable to take advantage. Kassarate had a shot beaten out by Wright and Adom made his way to the byline before pulling it back, only for Bath to clear on both occasions with no attacking players getting in the right place to concern the defence.

In injury time, Bath might have added a second when Wilson broke through and he should have done better than fire over.

There was still time for one more talking point when Tanga burst into the penalty area and went down following Clark’s challenge. Hopes of the award of a spot-kick fell on deaf ears and the final whistle was blown soon after.

Defeat took Welling back into the bottom three while Bath celebrated regaining top spot.

PICTURES: DAVE BUDDEN

Main Pic: Jordan Thomas scores the only goal of the game