Worcester City 0-1 Welling United

WELLING United visited Worcester City on Saturday, keen on avenging their recent home defeat.

The hosts, however, wanted to complete their first double of the season at windy St Georges Lane.

Andy Ford’s side lined up with an unchanged starting XI from the previous Saturday’s draw at Newport County, with their two new signings, Jon Docker from Thurrock and Loiu Fazackerley from Bromley, awaiting their chances on the substitutes bench.

All the play was in the Worcester half of the pitch for the first 15 minutes as Charlie Sheringham slightly over-hit a cross following good work by Sanchez Ming, and Jerome Anderson curled a shot just over the bar.

Skipper Rob Quinn was shown a yellow card after 17 minutes for a strong tackle on Dave Bampton before Bampton was also shown cautioned as Worcester became more frustrated by their inability to trouble Welling.

A slide rule pass by James Baker almost put Ryan Johnson through,but he was thwarted by a last-gasp tackle from Jon Richardson.

Just before the half hour, Welling should have gone ahead.

Sheringham crossed from the left and Anderson’s dummy gave Lee Blackburn a great opportunity, but his rising shot went just over the bar with Danny McDonnell in goal well beaten. Sheringham had a shot deflected just wide before Welling went ahead with a goal of the highest level.

Worcester found dealing with corners difficult all afternoon and after scrambling away another two, the ball came out to Sonny Cobbs.

His deep cross was killed stone dead by Baker, who then slipped it past McDonnell in one move for his first goal in Wings colours.

Johnson had a shot blocked by the feet of McDonnell before Jamie Turner was called into action for the first time of the afternoon plucking a Marco Addagio effort out of the air.

Shabir Khan then shot wide from well out in first half stoppage time.

Despite playing the second half into the wind and uphill, the visitors still enjoyed the majority of possession and territorial advantage and a Blackburn cross caused chaos, requiring desperate defending to block shots by Baker and Sheringham.

Ming made a fine tackle to foil a Worcester breakaway and then, at the other end, crossed into the arms of McDonnell following more good hold up play by Baker.

In desperation, Worcester tried to make the most of the wind advantage by putting up a few high crosses, but Turner caught them all cleanly and it was Welling who came close to scoring again.

McDonnell made an outstanding save with his feet from a Sheringham effort before Fazackerley came on for Anderson to give the home defence some different problems.

A double substitution allowed Docker his Welling debut before Baker thought he had doubled the lead, taking Blackburn’s through ball in his stride and rounding McDonnell before sliding home.

Unfortunately, this was ruled out for offside.

Three Worcester players were booked for petulant offences as time ran down and with them failing to trouble the visitors again.

Welling: Turner, Ming (Andrews 76), Cobbs, Quinn, Matthew McEntegart, Sinclair, Anderson (Fazackerley 64), Blackburn, Baker, Sheringham (Docker 76), Johnson. Subs not used: Gross, Morgan.