Warren Feeney was delighted to see his side grind out victory at Eastbourne Borough on Tuesday evening as an excellent defensive showing helped his side to a 1-0 win. 

Stefan Payne’s second-half strike was the difference at Priory Lane on a wet night on the East-Sussex coast and the Wings’ defence stood up to an Eastbourne bombardment to secure a third win on the bounce as Welling move up to fifth. 

“It was a great win for us tonight,” said Feeney. 

“They’re a great footballing side, but there’s no right or wrong way to win games, people should know that. We came here tonight and won the game properly with a clean sheet. 

“It was a tough game, but we’re delighted with the three points. It’s a performance where we had to dig in, fight and show character. When we wake up tomorrow morning, we’ve won 1-0.”

On his team’s defensive display, he said: “You’ve got defend and you’ve got to score goals. We scored a goal, we kept a clean sheet, we won the game. 

“It’s good for defenders to show what they can do in defence. People get carried away with these wing-backs and full-backs going forwards, but defenders are defenders and they have to defend first and foremost, our boys did that as a team, collectively and individually. 

“It was a big performance tonight and a big, big win.”

Meanwhile, Feeney reflected on the incident which saw him shown a red card on the touchline 10 minutes before the end as tempers boiled over during a fiery encounter. 

“It was because I was holding the ball,” he explained. 

“That was deemed a red card and I was giving it back a bit to their staff. 

“But that’s football. I was just pleased with how the players were and we move on to another big one on Saturday.”