Saturday’s game at the Aspect Arena will be Welling United’s second visit to Concord Rangers this season.

Having already met in the Vanarama National South this season, they have now been drawn together in the F.A. Trophy.

Their initial meeting ended with Welling winning five nil. Adam Coombes notched a hat-trick with Lyle Della-Verde and Pierre Joseph-Dubois also on target.

Since then, the two teams’ fortunes have changed. While Welling have only won one league game since mid September, Concord have only lost one of their last five.

Mark Goldberg has taken action by stepping away from the manager’s job and promoting Jamie Day from Head Coach to Manager for his second spell in charge. Adrian Pennock, also a former Wings manager, has been added to the management team as a consultant.

On Tuesday night, they entertained Dartford in the Kent Senior Cup, and it was clear that both teams wanted to win. An even first half saw Welling go ahead through Harry Crawford, enjoying his first start following a long injury. Ryan Hayes equalised from the spot so the two teams went in level at the break.

Keaton Wood put Dartford ahead early in the second half, and they looked to be in control until Welling lifted themselves for the last fifteen minutes. Four minutes remained when Matt Fish’s shot hit Wood on the back and looped into the net.

Sam Hatton had a chance to win it in injury time but skied his spot kick so with no extra time or replay, the tie went to penalties. Hatton went first and converted, much to the pleasure of Day who said: “Sam’s an experienced player. He knows he’s got to hit the target and I thought in fairness to him, he showed good character to come out and take another penalty.”

Hayes, who had converted during the game, has his penalty saved by Harry Girling. The Millwall loanee also saved Alex Brown’s effort while Fish, George Oakley and Christian Nanetti all followed Hatton in scoring.

Day is hopeful that Welling will pick up some momentum and put on another good show on Saturday. Talking about the F.A. Trophy he said “I want to win it but we’ve got a bigger problem of trying to win games to get up the league table. We need momentum.”

He wants the victory over Dartford to be the start of that. “Hopefully, it will give them a little bit of a boost, a little bit of confidence going into the Trophy game.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.