After three consecutive home games Welling United enter their run towards the end of the season which includes eight away games in their final thirteen.

Whilst that might sound like a tough run in, their away record of won five, drawn five and lost three  is good and only Havant and Waterlooville have lost fewer on the road. On top of that, only one game is at a club in the top half so the Wings squad won’t be daunted.

They start the run in with a trip to Concord Rangers on Saturday. The Canvey Island based club have a similar home record to Welling’s away one having won six, drawn five and lost three. However the three defeats were all in the early stages of the season and they are unbeaten at home in the league since 12^th September so Welling will be in for a challenge.

No fewer than five former Welling players were in the Concord sixteen that travelled to Gloucester City last weekend. Jordan Brown and Lewis Knight were in the starting line up. Included amongst the substitutes were Aristide Bassele, Ben Greenhalgh and Steve King.

Jamie Coyle’s Welling team come into the game following an exhilarating victory over St. Albans City. Although they went behind to a contentious penalty awarded in the 50^th minute, Welling took just 21 seconds to draw level. Ryan Hall picked out Bradley Goldberg and he twisted and turned on the edge of the area before firing home an unstoppable shot.

Four minutes later, Welling went ahead when Hall’s deep corner found Jack Parkinson unmarked at the far post and the player coach bundled it home.

Goldberg then turned provider when sent clear by Olumide Durojaiye he drew Dean Snedker out before setting up Jamie Philpot to slot home a debut goal.

When Welling entertained Concord earlier in the season, they played out a game that was a real emotional roller coaster. Amos Nasha gave the visitors a ninth minute lead and when Kyron Farrell made it two just short of the hour mark it looked like it was game over.

Joe Healy pulled one back from twenty five yards six minutes later and Eli Phipps scored a brace to turn the game on its head. From there, Welling would have hoped to have seen the game out but some shocking defending allowed Khale Da Costa to crash home from close range deep into injury time.

Although Concord are six points clear of the drop zone, they will be looking to accumulate the points to take them to safety as much as Welling want them to clamber back into the play-off zone.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.