Welling boss Warren Feeney felt his team lacked a spark during their home draw with Dover on Tuesday night.

While both teams had late chances to win it, Welling never really got going throughout and visiting keeper Stuart Nelson had relatively little to do.

“I think the spark and energy was missing,” said Feeney. “We can’t play in second gear, we’ve got to play on the front foot. We’re like a boxing team, we want to go toe-to-toe with anyone but we looked a bit sluggish tonight.

“We were hoping that something was going to happen.

“We still had chances but it was one of those games where we hoped something was going to happen and we didn’t do enough to win it.

“We wanted to get the ball wide, get balls in the box and give the strikers something to feed off.

“It’s one of those games where you scrape a 1-0 and walk away from it saying we were poor. There were a lot of disappointed faces in the changing room but as long as they learn from it then nothing has changed about where we are.

“We’ll keep going and it’s still early days for us – we’re 10 games into the season. If you’d have said we’d be fifth in the league from where we finished last season, people would have bitten your right arm off.”

Feeney knew it was going to be tough against an improving Dover outfit, especially as Welling were coming into the game off the back of a tough encounter with second-placed Havant on Saturday.

But, having to their noses ahead, the Wings boss was disappointed with a piece of poor defending from Manny Parry that let in Dover for the equaliser.

“I’m not too disheartened,” he added. “I said before the game that this was going to be the biggest game of the season for me.

“Where we have come from and after a big game on Saturday, teams are going to come here now and see us as a scalp. Dover had a great result, he’s a great manager Andy Hessenthaler, as he was as a player, he never gave up.

“We showed in stages what we were about but we didn’t do enough to win the game. I know we had a lot of chances but we huffed and puffed.

“The disappointing thing was that you (should) take the 1-0 and hold your hands up and say it was a rubbish game. Our concentration levels for us to give away the goal were poor, we’ve got to take it on the chin.

• Report: Welling 1-1 Dover

“It’s that crucial five minutes after you score. The most difficult part of the game is concentration levels.

“We went into Saturday on the back of four clean sheets. No disrespect but last year when I first came in we’d conceded 69 goals and I was thinking I need Harry Potter’s wand here!

“We knew Havant was going to be tough on Saturday but this was the big one for me. When you go into games you start with a point so the worst thing is to finish with a point.

“The goal was disappointing but I’m not going to be critical of the boys as they’ve been brilliant for me.”