Welling United 0 v Eastbourne 2

A very disappointing Wings performance this afternoon in the cold and damp. Mark Goldberg has continued to change his players at a rate that simply can't be healthy for any club. What manager Peter Taylor makes of it, I don't know, but it's not a sustainable set-up. I reckon there were seven or eight changes from the side I watched beaten by Hampton and Richmond in October. 

Eastbourne were only a couple of points better off than the Wings before this afternoon's encounter so I was expecting to see Welling put them under some pressure. Sadly they struggled to do that and Eastbourne won this at a bit of a canter. Both sides were playing a high defensive line but whereas Welling were repeatedly caught offside, Eastbourne managed to spring the Welling trap time after time in the first half and were unlucky not to have scored from one of a number of breaks and pops at goal. Joel Rollinson on the right wing in particular found himself clear and bearing down on goal a number of times only to be thwarted by covering defenders or Jack Sims in the goal. Indeed, Sims was called on to save a penalty to keep it level at the break.

Welling struggled to create anything. There was very little width or pace and Tom Derry was lost upfront on his own. Ademola Shokunbi looked most likely in the first-half to create something but he faded in the second. Tom Derry won nothing until a late header which was knocked on for Joe Muscat to head goalward but it was pushed out by Lee Worgan. By then Eastbourne had taken the lead when Charley Kendall raced on to another ball over the top and drove it past Sims. 

With the clock running down, Eastbourne sub Dominic Hutchings swept in from the left to pick up a cross in acres of space and beat the defenceless Jack Sims with ease.

The crowd looked unusually poor and to me at least, less than the 492 given. The atmosphere was flat and the side gave the supporters very little to cheer. It all feels a bit doom and gloom and with Mark Goldberg rumoured to be losing interest, you have to wonder how much longer Peter Taylor will persevere and just what a struggle this season looks like for Welling.