Welling United 5, Truro City 3

TRURO City suffered their second defeat of the week as they fell to a 5-3 away defeat at play off hopefuls Welling United, writes Cameron Weldon.

It was a disastrous start for the White Tigers as they conceded three goals in fifteen minutes and were struggling to show some of the fight from previous matches.

After a pretty dull opening exchange, it was Welling who took the lead in the sixteenth minute as Bradley Goldberg fired home past goalkeeper Rivers from the penalty spot after John Paul Kissock had been fouled in the area.

Things went from bad to worse for City as Welling charged on defensive errors and first hit the bar before adding their second on twenty-eight minutes. Full back Craig Braham-Barrett avoided the tackles of three Truro players and fired a low shot into the bottom corner leaving Rivers helpless.

Truro were on the ropes and Welling took full advantage of that. Just three minutes after the second, they got their third. Danny Mills had a header knocked on to the bar after a stunning save from Harvey Rivers, only for the ball to cannon off into the path of Matt Paterson, and the former Oxford City man who has caused City plenty of pain in the past simply couldn’t miss.

Coming out for the second period Truro needed a reaction and they didn’t even get a touch of the ball to try to do so before it was four. Mills who was unlucky not to score in the first half found himself through on goal straight from kick off and he slotted home Welling’s fourth.

With 48 minutes on the clock City got their first real meaningful chance of the game and they took full advantage. The in form Tyler Harvey managed to shrug off the Welling defender before hitting a shot across goal past Wilks thanks to help from the goal post.

With a new spark of confidence, the White Tigers went looking for more and despite having some half chances they were caught with a sucker punch. The Welling danger man Mills finished well after some good work from Julien Anau to give them their fifth of the afternoon.

With Welling clearly thinking the game was done, they took their foot of the gas and that gave Truro an opportunity to try to salvage something from the game.

Harvey got his second of the afternoon with a low shot that beat Wilks, giving him his seventeenth goal of the campaign and gave Truro some belief.

Substitute Jon-Paul Pittman who came on minutes before for Jared Lewington had to be stretchered off the field with a leg injury after an altercation in the Welling box.

Despite the game being stopped for a while Truro continued to probe the Welling defence and they got their third through a close-range header from new signing Nick Hurst. The comeback was well and truly on.

Truro had two massive chances in the last ten minutes. Nick Grimes missed from close range after a corner was headed down by Booth into his path whilst Louis Rooney was gifted an opportunity when Wilks dropped a simple catch, but he blazed his effort over the bar.

The White Tigers showed a lot of fight in the second half to get back into the game but in the end, it was the case of being too little too late.

They have the perfect opportunity to bounce back however as they host St Albans City at Treyew Road on Tuesday evening.

Welling: Wilks, McNamara, Braham-Barrett, Kissock (Mendy 60), Hill, Audel (Acheampong 60), Anau, Paterson, Goldberg, Mills, Ijaha (c) (Kiernan 67).

Truro: Rivers, Thompson, Riley-Lowe, Booth, Bentley (Battle 51), Grimes, D Rooney, Allen (c), Hurst, Lewington (Pittman 57, L Rooney 76), Harvey.