Welling United entertained Eastbourne Borough at Park View Road on Saturday, the Wings first game in just under three weeks. Despite the long break the homeside came out the victors with debutant Dane Springer scoring the winner on the stroke of halftime.

Welling Boss Adrian Pennock welcomed back keeper Jamie Turner to his side and the Wings number 1 showed his quality making a number of excellent saves to help secure three points for the homeside.

An uninspiring first period saw very few real goal scoring opportunities. Martin Carthy had his low effort comfortably saved by the Sports keeper on 8 minutes before moments later a Wings corner was cleared off the line by Neil Jenkins from Chris Moore's header.

Eastbourne nearly took the lead in a bizarre fashion 14 minutes into the game. Ben Lewis miss-hit his clearance inside the box and the ball came back off the bar into the hands of a relieved Turner.

A quick counter-attack from the visitors caught the Wings defence out of position and Matt Crabb should have punished them but the striker couldn't direct his shot on target.

Danny Kedwell went close for Welling five minutes before the break. A curling effort from the Wings top scorer was well saved by Lee Hook.

However, just as it looked certain to be a goalless first half the Wings snatched the lead. An inch perfect cross from Ellis Green found an unmarked Dane Springer who from the far post side footed the ball home.

The second half saw Eastbourne increase the pressure in search of an equaliser. Just minutes after the restart and the visitors created their first chance. A flick on from Duncan McArthur allowed Adam Wilde to shoot from close range but Jamie Turner denied them at the near post.

Substitute Wilde saw another effort saved by Turner when the midfielder got on the end of Jay Lovett's cross.

The Sports were awarded a penalty on 62 minutes when a mistimed challenge from Che Stadhart brought down Matt Smart. McArthur stepped up to take the spot kick but his effort was easily saved by Turner.

Despite controlling possession Eastbourne failed to equalise and the Wings managed to hold on to the win cementing their place in the top 5.

Welling travel to Tamworth on Tuesday in the FA Trophy hoping to complete the game this time around after the power failure last week resulted in the match being abandoned.

Come on you Wings!

Click Thumbnail or Here for Match Video (19MB-Large File)



Click Here for Interview with Adrian Pennock (2.9MB-Small File)

Extracts from the Interview:
"The performance wasn't brilliant but we could have played better and lost. It's a sign of a good team, you have to dig in and ride you’re lucky a little bit but I'm just obviously happy with the three points.

We didn’t have much legs in there, people playing there own game and there were some awful performances. But we won 1-0 and at the end of the day. To be fair I know its not going to be pretty but before the game I would have taken a 1-0 whatever the performance. I can’t complain about the lads at all, we have been absolutely superb all season. All credit to them, a few of us had to roll our selves up and grind out a 1-0 win."