Saturday 21 October 2017

Gloucester City 0 v Welling United 1

I trekked over to Paddington this morning, met up with Tony and Bobby and we took the train to Evesham to see the Wings make it six league wins in succession. For anyone head-scratching at this, Gloucester are currently ground-sharing 25 miles from home, which is probably why the gate was a tad under 300.

We stopped in town for a quick pint before a taxi took us the Evesham club house and a few more pints in a relaxed atmosphere out of the howling wind. The conditions were the worst I have witnessed since that fateful day in Yeovil. The rain was light but the wind constant and it was clear from the off that there wouldn't be any goals at the westerly end. 

It was a tight first-half, played mostly in Welling's half as they defended the easterly goal. It was difficult for the Wings to really get the ball out of their half although they persevered and looked the better side with the ball on the floor. Dylan Barnes was relatively well protected given the pressure the back four were under and he mopped up what did get through to him. It wasn't a day for the dribbling left winger, Nanetti, nor really for Eliah Phipps, both of whom appreciation precision football. They eventually made way for Bradbrook and Goldberg in the second-half as Welling sought to use the wind. 

At half-time Tony and I were checking our coupon (Stoke and Luton let us down) and we noticed that Welling had somehow been moved from 6/5 to 3/1 to win. The bookies must have been going on the stats because nothing else warranted the change in odds and clearly no-one at Bet365 was accounting for the gale. We duly lumped on.

Into the second-half and, surprisingly, Gloucester managed to make much more of it in the Welling half against the wind but they still looked short of sufficient power to beat Barnes from any distance. Welling, meanwhile were beginning to create wind-assisted chances and we were still confident of a winner into the last ten minutes. After a spell of Wings pressure, another attack saw a congested penalty box as Gloucester got men behind the ball but it was worked to the clever Joe Healy who conjured a deceptively soft but accurate shot which crossed the box and nestled high in the net. The 60 Wings fans behind the goal celebrated wildly and minutes later it was all over. The jubilant players made their way behind the goal and every player shook every hand offered and thanked us for our support. Welling move up to fifth and are the side to beat in National League South at the moment.

In the taxi en route to the station I learnt that the Addicks had matched the Wings with a very good 1-0 win at Bradford. Ben Amos won the match with two fine last gasp saves but we were good value for the points and it's been an excellent week on the road for Robinson and his team. I only hope the takeover goes through quickly now so we can capitalise as a club on our league position and the feel-good factor of new owners. Please let it come to pass.

All-in-all a good day and one where we came home with more money in our pockets than when we left. Can't be bad.

2 comments:

  1. Always nice to come home with money in your pocket.
    Hope the weather holds out next week.

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  2. Thass all your exenophobes ope for is to destroy our gaff, thass wot will appen n all when theirn sell it off for ahrsin. Juss goes to show wot little yourn know abahrt owners n ow lucky we ave to ave Queen Katrien n Roland runnin our club.

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