In a match that saw a poor Weston performance, in which the referee also had a poor game, a Jarrad Welch stunner from range wasn’t enough to prevent Welling from winning 3 -1 in front of an attendance of 491.
Welling No.8 Durojaiye opened the scoring in the eighth minute when a dubious throw was awarded to Welling. The ball was thrown over the head of Jason Pope, catchng him unawares, and the Welling midfielder bundled his way past the last remaining defender and slotted the ball into the corner past Luke Purnell for 1 – 0.
Philpot was released clear on goal, but his chip was straight into Purnell’s arms. An overhead kick a few minutes later from Bradley Goldberg richoted off the crossbar, tbe ball resultantly going out for a corner after Weston faied to clear the ball properly.
From the resulting corner, Parkinson broke clear of his marker to nod into the corner, leaving Purnell with no chance.
Purnell once made his “camera” save of the game, reacting quickly, stretcing to his fullest to tip a Goldberg half-volley over the bar, prevening Welling from extending their lead.
Jarrad Welch worked an opportunity from the edge of the box, but his daisy cutter was easily held by the Welling shot-stopper.
After the interval, Weston attacked with more purpose, scoring a consolaton through an excellent strike. Danny Greenslade’s switch of play came to Aaron Parsons, who nodded the ball down for Welch. Taking the shot on first-time, Welch lasered the ball into the top corner from outside the box to halve the deficit.
Jack Jebb then restored Welling’s two-goal lead. A pass through seemed to deliberately stike the hand of Jebb, whose hand was in an un-natural position and the ref waved play on. Jebb was allowed to run into the box and push the ball under Purnell, despite the protestations of the Weston players, bench and fans, however the referee allowed the goal to stand.
A couple of attempts from Welch went wide of the post, and Welch skied two free-kicks over the bar as the game ticked to an undramatic climax.
FT: Welling 3-1 Weston (Durojaiye 8, Parkinson 23, Jebb 58-Welch 56)
Weston XI: Purnell, Parsons, Greenslade (Goodall 74), Cane (C), Pope, Morris-Edwards, Welch, Diallo, Lee, Plummer (Hunter 61), Scott (Llewellyn 71).
MOTM: Jarrad Welch-Impressive on the ball and a lovely goal to draw Weston back into it, however his good work for the goal was undone two minutes later.