Cod Almighty | Match Stats

Saturday 12 January 2013

FA Trophy (R3)

Welling United 1 Healy (26 pen)

Grimsby Town 2 Devitt (31 pen), Marshall (52)

Attendance: 1037

We occupied their wings like nobody's business and Marshall more than anyone. On the left, on the right, he was good. Ran at their defence, a few times they said no, but he tickled them. Scored a peach. Could have been Disley or McKeown.

"When they were attacking I always thought we were capable of getting the ball and playing out and causing them problems in wide areas in particular. It's easy to say after the event [but] I always felt like we weren't going to lose the game, certainly, and I think the longer it went, they just sort of threw balls up there."

We played well, we played badly, we played everything in between. Devitt and Marshall were our Wings and Welling Let 'Em In. The line-up was impressive, lots of options going forward. Pearson and Miller reunited with Hatton and Wood keeping watch. Devitt knows what he is doing and really worked their defence, cutting in, cutting out, running at them, running round them. He's good. I like Devitt. Scored one of the 17 penalties awarded in the first half (having won paper-scissors-stone with Brodie). There's no doubting Brodie is a good footballer. He has the face of a little child with his rosy red cheeks, but also has the attitude of one. Quite shouty on the pitch, which got him in to some bother. Hopefully the Big Shouty will have a word with him. Play football with your feet mate. He owes Welling a football as one of his shots ended up on the A207. Nice twists and turns though. His partner in crime already has already won the hearts of the crowd. This is no holiday romance: Hannah is here to stay, and he can stay as long as he wants. You missed a penalty? We don't mind. He worked his socks off. We'll buy him some new socks. Some great link-up play with Disley and Devitt should have seen a goal or two. Nice twists and turns too. Let's dance. Defensively we were OK. We let them in a few times when we could have kept our calm and gone forward. Pearson hugged one of their players too much and gave away a penalty, but these things happen; not again though please. Pearson got knocked out. Woke up, took a drink of water and got back up and played. Livvo would have been proud. Special shout out to Dave Moore who was already on the pitch by the time Pearson had landed. That man looks after these players like they're his children. Second half got a tad nervy. Welling wanted this and we were late in boarding up the hatches. Down the middle we kept the ship on course. Disley as ever at the helm. I like Niven, but he sometimes makes my stomach go a bit norovirusy when he's on the ball. Let's keep the ball, it's our ball. In goal James McKeown was as solid as a solid thing. A nervy shot early on hit the woodwork, but after that he was fantastic. Came out and took all corners and there were some very tall Welling players to contend with. He's not big, but he's clever. Made two exceptional saves late on in the game which very much kept us in it. We did what we needed to do and there are some real glimpses of lovely football. Let's play lovely football.

Good. They were on a 10-match winning streak and you could see why. Desire and good players. In the club bar (which sold their own 'Welling United FC Lager') they were showing highlights of their previous two games; in both of them Welling came from behind to win. Derren Brown mind games? I think so. Their goalkeeper had a short-sleeved shirt on. Did he think it was 2000? It was all I could focus on. They seemed organised and worked hard. Their number 2, Fazakerley, was small but mighty. Strong lad who could run. A mini-Marshall who later in the game gave Bradley Wood a good running at. Why didn't he run earlier? They played like a team who were on a winning streak. Played the ball on the floor and kept their composure. Respected their opponents and gained respect in return. Could easily be in the Conference next season and all the luck to them. They played well but were denied late on by our keeper.

Loud. We brought a drum and banged it. A crescendo over 90 minutes. Hearts in mouths at points, but hearts on sleeves. Or something. Well done, all. It's a long way to travel.

Mr N Kinseley (Essex)
This bloke loves yellow cards so much that he gave out 10 during the game. Maybe he got a new set for Christmas? Looked like a smaller Howard Webb. Could have let a few of the yellows go. Gave three penalties in the first half which were all justified I think. His linesmen, however, not so good. Some off offside decisions. Maybe they were tired from climbing the hill that the ground was on. Ten yellow cards plus three penalties divided by three officials = 4.333333.