12 February 2022

Welling Town                      3          Sotoyinbo 64, 72, Oni 81

Erith and Belvedere          3          Pepple 18, Rooney pen 53, Brown 56

WELLING CURSE STRIKES THE DERES AGAIN

The goals certainly fly in when Erith and Belvedere meet Welling Town.  After this sixth meeting between the clubs the aggregate score stands at 26-13 to the Boots, an average of 6½ goals per game.  Yet keeping up the average was only possible because of a late comeback by the home side which the Deres should have been prepared for.

With Danny Lear unavailable, the Deres gave a first start to Daniel Pepple up front, and he linked well with Tommy Brown, making only his second start.  Nathan Palmer is settling in well, and the three of them gave Welling problems.  However the first chance of note fell to the hosts as Sewa Marah drew a good low full-length save from Rilwan Anibaba in the 10th minute.

On 18 minutes James Dyer worked hard to get in a shot which was blocked by keeper, but ran through to the far post where Pepple was waiting to snap up the chance.  Eight minutes later Brown did well to set up Lee Lewis for a shot which he drilled just wide of the left-hand post. 

Welling had the better chances as half-time approached, hitting a post on the half hour, Terlochan Singh’s shot whistling wide on 36 minutes and Manah having another shot well held by Anibaba.  The chances had been even in the first half even if a bobbly pitch and the chill wind had been the most influential factor.

Deres took the lead in the eighth minute of the second half when Brown was brought down in the box and Luke Rooney calmly converted the penalty.  Three minutes later good work by Palmer resulted in the ball being fed to Lee Lewis, who played in a good ball for Brown to volley home to make the scoreline 0-3.

At that stage Deres were so on top one wondered if they were about to exact revenge for the heavy home defeat they suffered during their transitional month in February 2020.  Yet on 64 minutes Sotoyinbo finished off a good move by pulling a goal back.  And eight minutes later the same player was lurking at the back post to make it 3-2.  And nine minutes from time a goalmouth scramble was finished by Dami Oni bundling it home to equalise.

Leaving aside the one time Deres have beaten Welling Town, in their other five meetings Welling have scored 15 goals in the last half-hour of the games.  It happened again, and although Stefan Cox was inches from a winner three minutes into stoppage time, the Deres found themselves sharing the points.

BOOTS: Laurence Whymark; Dami Oni, Dennis Agbudume, Terlochan Singh, Michael Agboola, Andrew Appiah, Greg Frederick, Emmanuel Okunja, Sewa Marah, Ollie Sotoyinbo, Joao Carlos.

DERES: Rilwan Anibaba; Lee Lewis, James Dyer, Luke Rooney, Reece Barrett, Rob Curtis (Josh Lee 73), Sid Morgan, Drew Allassani (Kazzeem Richards 65), Daniel Pepple, Nathan Palmer (Stefan Cox 87), Tommy Brown.  Subs not used: Greg Benbow, Neil Spencer.