Bognor Regis Town 0
Welling United 0
Saturday 2 October 2005

The Wings were without Lee Gledhill (ill) and Daniel Moore (injured) for this away fixture at sunny Bognor Regis. As a result Adrian Pennock had to make changes to the line up, including moving Matt Lee to right back and giving Leon Solomon his debut for the Wings in the position of left back.

The same fixture last season saw the Wings at one point leading 5-3 but eventually losing 6-5. However, a lot has changed since then and the battling performance today really showed why the Wings are a different proposition this season as they sit in the top five.

Welling started brightly and took the game to Bognor. Within one minute of the kick-off Pinnock pulled back a cross for Perkins, who hit the ball just over the bar. Three minutes later again the Wings could have been in front, as a left wing cross from Owen allowed Matt Carruthers to head the ball across goal but unfortunately no one was there to finish.

Ten minutes in and Steve Perkins went down injured after falling awkwardly on his ankle. This looked a serious injury but after receiving treatment from Peter Green, Perkins came back on.

Shortly after resuming play, Welling could have been down to 10 men when Ben Watson for the Rocks was clear through on goal and Chris Moore's late challenge brought him down - luckily for Moore he escaped with a yellow.

Unfortunately after 25 minutes the earlier injury to Steve Perkins took its toll and he was brought off to be replaced by Terry Penfold. Minutes after this substitution, Adrian Clarke had a good effort on goal with a fiercely hit shot that went just wide of the post.

After dominating proceedings the Wings slowly started to lose their grip on the game and it was apparent that the loss of Perkins knocked the Wings out of their stride. As a result the Rocks came back in to the game and went close with Nightingale's effort, who in last season's fixture scored a hat trick. The last chance of the first half fell to Bognor when a corner kick was swung in by Hudson finding Joel Lynch, whose header was cleared off the line by the Wings defence.

Three minutes into the second half and the Wings could have taken the lead. Terry Penfold intercepted the ball on the edge of the Bognor area and was through one on one with the keeper, but his shot was too weak to challenge Stoner. This effectively was the last decent chance for the Wings as the Rocks dominated the rest of the game.

Penfold was substituted for Bodkin for tactical reasons, but this did not prevent Nightingale hitting a ferocious shot from the edge of the area, which luckily for the Wings flew passed the post.

In the 75 th minute things got more uncomfortable for the Wings as Chris Moore was sent off for an ‘off the ball' incident with Ben Watson. The referee consulted the linesman and without hesitation showed Moore the red card. After the game the referee confirmed that Chris Moore was sent off for two yellows and not a straight red for that incident.

With the Wings down to ten men, Bognor had more of the possession but they never really created any clear-cut chances thanks to some well organised defending from the Wings.

The game ended 0-0, but was nevertheless a superb performance from the Wings given that they had players missing through injury and were without key players during significant periods of this match.

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