WALLINGTON showed a resilience they’ve been lacking this season to clinch three points from their encounter with an in-form Killingworth Town side.

While the Greens have buckled under pressure recently, they were rock solid in defence to keep out sustained second half pressure from their guests who were reeling after a poor first half showing.

The return of Ben Fenwick has bolstered the defensive trio, and he starred alongside Justin Millican and captain Josh Laverick, who was replaced by John Meehan within the opening 20 minutes.

His injury forced a reshuffle as Meehan went into midfield and Calum Donohue was switched from wing back to centre half.

Yet the positional changes didn’t throw Wallington off their game plan as they were excellent in the opening period, some slick football and attacking intent cutting Town open time and again.

Their attractive style led to the deadlock being broken as a swift move from front to back resulted in impressive midfielder Kyle Reardon getting a shot away on goal.

The ball’s path towards Dan Regan’s goal was blocked by a Killingworth defender, the referee judging that the defender had illegally used his hand to prevent it getting through and awarded a spot kick.

With Killingworth incensed by the decision, Wallington striker Dan Thompson rubbed in the salt as he sent Regan the wrong way from 12 yards.

A similar passing move which started from defence saw the hosts extend their lead before the break, Thompson’s cross reaching Brad Richardson who slipped in Tom Truscott to cleverly use the defender as a shield to curl the ball past him and Regan for 2-0.

Killingworth opted to be more direct as they regularly lumped long ball forwards, but the tactics weren’t working as defenders Fenwick, Millican and Donohue stood up to the aerial onslaught.

The half time ticking off by the Town manager was clear for all in the immediate area to hear, and Killingworth emerged from the break a different side.

The visitors came out flying and, after Wallington saw off a couple of corners, their pressure paid off when goalkeeper Matty Lees missed a ball into the area and a Town striker was on hand to poke the ball home from a yard out.

Lees was making his first start for a year and impressed with a couple of low saves, although he wasn’t called upon too often other than to catch and punch away a few crosses.

Wallington refused to deviate from their game plan, though, and the quality of their third goal even eclipsed the other two.

It started on the left hand side with Richardson finding Reardon, who flicked the ball around to Truscott to switch a ball out wide on the right to Meehan.

The winger’s cross was intended for Reardon who continued his run, but Thompson interjected and controlled the pass and fired the ball home for his seventh goal in the three games played since suspension. Killingworth then proceeded to throw everything at their hosts who defended for their lives, and the margin was reduced to one when a great free kick left Lees with no chance.

The fired-up visitors thought they had pinched a point in the dying minutes when an effort beat Lees, but Millican came to Wallington’s rescue as he headed clear off the line.

There was one final scare for the Greens as Killingworth piled everybody including Regan up for the resulting corner.

The ball found the goalkeeper but his shot went wide as Wallington kept hold of all three points which moved them up one place in the Premier Division table.