Welling 1 City 1

A battling performance from City got a point where both sides showed why they are where they are with wasteful finishing.
After an even opening where Welling showed a little more interest, Cooke converted Frears cross with a header beating the keeper to the ball to put City 1 up. Welling could have equalised straightway and at ht we knew the 2nd half would be Alamo like.

And so it proved. After Fletchers header narrowly wide in the 46th min it was backs to the wall as City manfully kept Welling at bay. Balls flashed cross the box, went wide but Clarkes main problem was his inexcusable scruffy ground kicks. But City looked dangerous getting forward with Raynes, Ryan Jones and Fletcher trying to create the chance to put the game away. It duly arrived when Frear somehow contrived to steer a cross wide in front of the goal. Within moments Welling took their chance as Batten went down injured in the middle of the pitch to roll the equaliser past Clarke.

6 mins of injury time saw end to end play as both sides realised the game was there for the taking. A draw probably fair and the type of grafting point City should have been more than capable of achieving in earlier games which would have avoided the nerve jangling uncertainty we are now faced with in the remaining 10 games.

A strange game which both teams had sufficient chances to have won comfortably. Welling were particularly poor in the first half but previous visits have shown they’re stronger playing down the slope and so it proved again in the second.
Jerry is right in his interview afterwards to say that all that matters are our results from now on but hopefully Billericay’s stunning win today will concentrate the minds of those who’ve been saying for months that there’s only one down and that place belongs to them. I think there’s a tough few weeks coming up…

You have to say that it is in our own hands to pick up sufficient points. But we are going to have to get sharper in front of goal. We are making chances but not that many that we can afford to spurn them. But that is the story of our season.
Fingers crossed that we can get that ellusive win under our belts on Tuesday.

Agreed. And I've said before I think we're going to have to get the majority of those sufficient points at home. Looking at the remaining six fixtures at Twerton I'd say those against Slough on Tuesday and Tonbridge look more winnable than the others.

Three of the next four are at home followed by three out of four away, before the season ends with two home fixtures. I read a supporter's post on social media today that at least being in a relegation scrap makes it an exciting finish to the season - presumably he didn't witness that last day match v Northwich (although the Great Escape at Worcester almost made up for it)

I think we need to target another 10 points as it is quite a tight league. There is a gap between 13th and 14th of 6 points which suggests below 13th are weaker teams. We only play 3 of these in the run in so it is looking a stiff task.
However I think if we can get one win this week it will change rhe complexion of our outlook.

I still have to pinch myself to see our beloved football club in a desperate scramble to avoid finishing bottom. I put last season down to a quirk of the circumstances we were living through, but now I see that it represented a warning sign, which was not successfully dealt with. I fear for what next season might look like for us.

Next season will look the same as this one if there is either no change in management or the management finally wakes up and realise that kids don't cut the mustard in this league. Chippenham with a lower budget have competed well, certainly better than us.

You obviously have detailed knowledge of both club's budgets.   Would you care to enlighten us with some figures to back up your statement ?