A big win, and mostly a professional one. Apart from a period in the second half when they pulled back to 3-2, Welling caused little trouble for Yeovil. The comeback was stifled when Yeovil were awarded an outrageously bad penalty decision, but then the Glovers took control again to run out easy winners.
Welling are always good hosts, and I've enjoyed my visits there over the years. So it genuinely gives no pleasure to say that their side is really quite poor. Nonetheless, the job still had to be done, and it can't have been easy playing in that heat, and with a greatly changed lineup.
New signing Chris Sparks took Dean Chandler's place in defence, and appears to be a good buy for Yeovil. The other new player, Stafford Browne started on the bench, but made an impact when he came on late in the game. Meanwhile, Jason Eaton took good advantage of his first start for a while, bagging the brace of goals that gave Yeovil a 2-0 half-time lead.
The first came after just four minutes; Eaton turned on the edge of the box and fired low into the corner of the goal. It wasn't a strong shot, but was good enough to beat an unimpressive keeper, who seemed slow to react. Eaton made it two after a quarter of an hour when he latched onto a weak pass from Hone to beat the keeper.
The rest of the first half seemed to have the feel of a friendly about it, not least because it felt like the middle of summer. Welling had a couple of good efforts, and Rob Cousins was on hand to clear off the line once, but neither side really attacked hard again until after the break. Darren Adams should have pulled one back for Welling when a fine cross from Joe Baker found him at the far post, but he headed weakly wide.
The game picked up in the second half as Welling started to really go at Yeovil for the first time, Richie Hanlon being their main threat; he's now scored seven out of Welling's nine goals this season. He pulled the score back to 2-1 when he turned inside from wide in the right, at beat Pennock with a fierce drive low at his near post. Five minutes later, a great chip from Ben Smith beat Harris to restore the two goal lead, before Hanlon struck again for 3-2. This time it was a tap-in after a fine cross from Joe Baker.
But now Yeovil started to tighten up again at the back, and once the score went to 4-2 the game was pretty much over. Although they deserved a two-goal lead, the decision that gave the penalty was shocking; you expect the defending side to complain, but when the fans of the attacking team start laughing and waving their money at the ref, he may well have got something wrong! Patmore was leaning against Harle, who stepped back to leave Warren on the floor, and the spot-kick was given. Ironically, after having a great penalty saved at Nuneaton recently, he scored with a straight-down-the-middle shot; 4-2 to Yeovil.
A couple of substitutions saw Stafford Browne make his début, and Steve Thompson come on for the first time this season, and the pair soon worked together to make the fifth goal; Browne did great work on the edge of the goal area to the right of the posts, and crossed for Thompson to tap-in.
So, all-in-all a good win, and only a short spell when Welling came back to 3-2 caused any scares. Eaton and Smith played well, and new signing Sparks looks useful. And looking at the long-term, it was so great to see Steve Thompson on the pitch again!
Next up is a home match against Hereford United on Tuesday.
