Dover Athletic and Welling United make a third attempt to complete their Vanarama National League fixture on Tuesday night at the Crabble.
Freak sudden heavy rainfall saturated the pitch on 2nd January causing the referee to have no option other than to abandon the match. There was no complaint from either manager and with the game goal-less it was an easy decision to make.
Then the rearranged game at the beginning of February was postponed early enough for players and supporters alike, not to travel needlessly, due to Whites drawing against Guiseley in the FA Trophy.
There are very different reasons for the two teams’ desire to claim the three points.
Chris Kinnear’s Dover Athletic are behind on games following their F.A. Trophy run to the quarter finals. Although that ended in disappointment with a defeat to Nantwich Town, they recovered to record an excellent win at Woking on Saturday.
Former Wing Jack Parkinson scored the only goal against another of his former clubs leaving the Whites five points outside the play-offs with games ahead.
Meanwhile, Welling United had an emotional injury time roller-coaster against league leaders Cheltenham Town on Saturday. There was unbridled joy when Luke Wanadio put them ahead in the first minute of stoppage time but utter dispair when Dan Holman levelled four minutes later.
Loui Fazakerley was Welling manager for the initial abandoned game but Dean Frost is now at the helm with the Wings in desperate need of some wins to drag them out of a pretty desperate situation.
When the teams met at Park View Road on Boxing Day, Dover enjoyed a pretty comfortable victory. Ricky Modeste put them ahead in the 13th minute and Nicky Deverdics doubled their lead midway through the second half.
Sam Corne pulled one back in the closing minutes but it was too little too late.
Corne is one of the influential players who is not likely to be involved due to injury. Despite having a squad that Frost considers to be too large, he was able to name just four players on the substitutes’ bench on Saturday.
Frost is hopeful that Harry Lee may be able to return but second choice goalkeeper Mike McEntegart may be out for a couple of weeks.
Ade Yusuff looks to be out for two to three weeks and Corne three to four, both depending on how they respond to treatment. Michael Chambers shouldn’t be out for longer than a week and Frost hopes to have George Porter available again in two weeks time.
Talking about Dover, Frost said “They’re a good side. They’ve got lots of good players. They play in a certain way. We’ve got to match them again.
“It’s (Saturday’s match against Cheltenham) probably taken a lot of energy out of people’s legs even though it was quite an end to end game, quite an open game, heavy pitch. We’ve got three days to recover and I’m looking forward to it.”