MARK Morris must be wondering what his team has to do to put one over on his former Cherries pal Adrian Pennock's Welling this season.

Edged out in a 4-3 thriller in Kent last September and then denied a trip to Huddersfield by a 2-1 home reverse in the FA Cup, Morris was hoping for some better luck in the Conference South return at the Avenue Stadium.

But nothing could have been further from the truth with Pennock's men getting all the breaks to close in on a play-off place with a close range hat-trick from former Thurrock midfielder Martin Carthy.

The result and most definitely the scoreline was rough on the Magpies who put the previous week's characterless performance against Eastleigh behind them and deserved to get something out of a contest again dominated by some contentious refereeing decisions.

The scoreline suggested a Welling walk-over but the stats told a different story. The Magpies out-scored their visitors on goal attempts, hit the woodwork, had another effort cleared off the goal-line and won the corner count by six to one.

But, thanks to Carthy's opportunism, an experienced and uncompromising Welling were successful with almost half of their efforts on goal and that was the big difference.

Home keeper Craig Bradshaw was furious with referee Ron Ganfield after Welling's Che Stadhart appeared to kick the ball out of his hands in a 50-50 challenge after ten minutes.

Simon Radcliffe managed to the block the shot when the grounded Stadhart then scooped the loose ball goalwards or Mr Ganfield's denial of a free kick would surely have caused uproar.

It was Welling's turn to breath a sigh of relief after 16 minutes when Jamie Brown's header from a Justin Keeler corner was blocked on the line by Jon Guest. The ball rebounded off his knee to hit Matt Groves before spiralling inches past the post for a goal kick.

A mis-head by Alex Browne allowed Stadhart a one-on-one chance which he blazed wide and in the next minute Keeler repeated the feat at the other end after Jamie Gleeson sent him clear.

Groves then blasted in a tremendous drive which was too hot for Jamie Turner to hold and the Wings keeper just won the race after the loose ball at the risk of losing his fingers to the rampaging Brown.

Mr Ganfield bizarrely punished Keeler for taking a free kick too quickly by producing a yellow card before incurring the wrath of the home fans again when he denied Dorchester a 35th minute lead by failing to play the advantage.

Impeded Glenn Howes weaved his way past several challenges in a determined break through the centre and, when the ball ran away from him as he was impeded just outside the box, Groves stepped in to smash it into Turner's left hand corner from 15 yards.

But a split second before the ball hit the back of the net Mr Ganfield blew up for a foul on Howes just outside the box and justice wasn't done when Keeler's free kick came to nothing.

Welling celebrated their escape by taking the lead within three minutes. Stadhart sent a looping cross to the far post where an unmarked Carthy dived in to beat Bradshaw with a close range header.

Two minutes later Welling stretched their lead in controversial fashion. Browne seemed to be dragged aside as he shepherded the ball back towards his keeper and although Bradshaw managed to resist Danny Kedwell's attempt to bundle it past him, he then lay injured as the ball ran loose for Carthy to steer into an unguarded net.

Dorchester lost Browne with an ankle injury in the 47th minute but that didn't stop them dominating the second half.

Brown headed inches wide from a Larbi Mekchiche cross after 58 minutes and Keeler was even closer two minutes later when his spectacular volley from a Groves lay-off slammed against the woodwork with Turner helpless.

For almost half an hour Pennock's men were forced to soak up the pressure before breaking out with devastating effect to score after 82 minutes with their only real attack of the second 45.

The persistence of Stadhart and Kedwell paid off as they got the benefit of several fortunate ricochets and when Kedwell steered a pass across the goalmouth, Carthy was in just the right spot again to accept another tap-in.