Feeney: “We had to dig in, fight and show character”

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.”