Reaction to Wealdstone Game

Gary Meakin declared himself pleased with Wingate & Finchley’s point against high flying Wealdstone but admitted that the result could all be in vain if the Blues don’t take anything from their Bank Holiday Monday derby at Hendon. Wingate and Wealdstone played out an entertaining 1-1 draw at Summers Lane and the Blues had chances to take all three points late on, something that the manager said left him feeling a bit frustrated: “It is a very good point, I would have definitely taken a point before the game and I’ll still take a point after the game but there is a bit of a what if, we had the chances to win the game but I suppose I can’t be too greedy, as I said I would have taken a point, it is just frustrating some times when you get the chances and you don’t put them away, hopefully we don’t rue them come the end of the season. “The result is definitely something we can build on but as I’ve said previously, I don’t think we’ve done anything different in how we have been playing for weeks. We beat Hendon 3-0 then didn’t play any different against Bognor but lost 1-0. We need to be more clinical in and around the penalty area. That is what wins games. We are doing the other bit right, we restricted them to not many chances, Richard Jolly had one chance, one goal that’s the difference.” “If you put it into perspective, we had six important players missing and it’s a point against Wealdstone who are challenging for the title, it’s a really good result. Could we have been stronger yes possibly but that is being disrespectful to those who played because it’s a squad game so everyone that played today are actually first team players. Everyone has been given their chance and they have taken it, so it’s for the six that are missing to earn their chance back in the side.” Meakin drafted in two new players ahead of the game; experienced defender Dan Braithwaite and youngster Joe Foley, who joined the club on work experience terms from Leyton Orient, and he stated that he had been pleased with both their contributions: “Braiths has actually been with us for about three weeks now, he’s been training with us and we had that game called off otherwise he would have played against Lowestoft. He was excellent, he did exactly what he was asked to do, he hadn’t played in weeks so he was struggling with his lungs a little bit towards the end. Joe Foley came in and on the football he showed what he’s got, he could have scored at the end and won it. He’s still got some work to do off the ball and we’re going to work with him on that because obviously now he’s playing men’s senior football, we’ve thrown him in at the deep end but he’s done really well so far.” The team’s attention now turns to tomorrow’s trip to Hendon and Meakin admitted that realistically a point from the two games would not be good enough for the 19th place Blues as they battle to avoid the drop: “It would be a disappointment if we finish the season with no points against Hendon. Would the point against Wealdstone go to waste, quite possibly. Obviously if they deserve to win then fine but I don’t want to be coming away saying we have wasted chances. One point over two games at this stage of the season isn’t good enough. We need three points from one of these games over the weekend so in that sense I would rather have lost today and then take three points at Hendon but hopefully we can go there and get the win and then getting four points from two tough games would be a fantastic end to the weekend.”