Welling United 0 v 2 Basingstoke City

Nationwide Conference South

WELLING United's play-off bid hangs in the balance after a dismal night at Princes Park.

In front of nervous and subdued fans, the Wings huffed and puffed against a side teetering on relegation and they came nowhere near blowing the visitor's house down.

To be fair, it is clear Welling's hectic schedule of games is taking its toll on the players - their football looked exhausted, both physically and mentally, and Basingstoke took them apart.

Welling occupy the final play-off spot, a single point above Bishop's Stortford who have a game in hand.

Moreover, Newport County and Eastbourne maybe four and seven points behind the Wings respectively, but they have three games in hand.

Injuries are not helping Adrian Pennock either as Martin Carthy deputised at left-back in place of Joe Bruce and Leon Solomon.

Steve Harper was drafted into the front line with Jamie Day returning to midfield after his two-game suspension.

Pennock's men started brightly against Basingstoke City with Danny Kedwell's long range effort being spilled to Ellis Green.

Had the winger hit the rebound first time he may have had more success but the extra touch for control gave 'Stoke time to snuff out the danger for a corner.

From the flag kick Steve Perkins rose unmarked but could only send his header over Stuart Searle's bar.

Oon 20 minutes Harper's break was abruptly stopped by David Ray on the edge of the centre circle.

The distance from goal probably saved the defender an automatic red card, but he did get a yellow.

From then on it was all Cambridge and Ben Surey's heavily deflected shot on 29 minutes left Jamie Turner flat-footed but bounced wide.

Matthew Warnell also went close with a curling effort from the edge of the area before the breakthrough came on 37 minutes.

Welling lost possession from their own corner and Cambridge broke away with great speed.

Carl Gibbs' perfect cross from the right, after he had bamboozled Carthy, was headed home superbly by Anthony Stoney.

In response, Welling could only muster a Hector Mackie cross which had to be cleared from under the crossbar.

Welling emerged for the second half with determined faces but after 48 minutes, they were 2-0 down.

This time Surey, formerly of Gravesend & Northfleet, hit a spectacular looping volley over Turner from 35 yards.

The goal effectively sealed the points and confirmed Cambridge's status as a Conference South club for next season.

Pennock, still looking for a valuable point, replace Mackie with the spritely Sam Tucknott and the winger's pace almost brough immediate dividends.

The youngster made space on the left and fed Kedwell in the penalty area - unfortunately the striker's turn and shot was tame and easily gathered by Searle.

Pennock's lack of depth in squad was apparent when he could only bring on defensive-minded Des Boateng and Mark Goodfellow for Harper and Green at a time when Welling needed forward thinking players.

Understandably the changes did little to Welling's overall performance and indeed Cambridge squandered chances to bag number three - Dean Lodge and James Taylor being the main culprits.

In the dying minutes, Joe Dolan was booked for a foul on Tucknott and Cambridge sub Scott Fitzgerald also picked up a yellow card, this time for kicking the ball away.

At the final whistle there were no boos of derision, rather a sea of faces looking nervously at eachother and predicting a tense last two games.

MATCH FACTS:

WELLING: Turner, Carthy, Lewis, Perkins, Moore, Carpenter, Green (Boateng, 66), Kedwell, Mackie (Tucknott, 51), Harper (Goodfellow, 58), Day.

SUBS NOT USED: Rowland, Hyde.

ATT: 402.