On Monday 5th June Welling United announced the departure of Warren Feeney as their team manager.

Having been linked with jobs elsewhere, when he was offered the manager’s role at Glentoran in his home country of Northern Ireland he made the decision to depart from the Park View Road hot-seat, although he will maintain a role as ambassador.

Feeney told the Welling United website “With a heavy heart, I have decided to step away from Welling. I have been offered a new challenge that I just couldn’t turn down.”

When he joined the club in March 2022, following the sacking of Peter Taylor, the Wings were in real peril of ending in the one relegation spot as bottom of the league but two wins over Easter, including a three-two victory over Maidstone United, led them to safety with Billericay Town dropping out of the league.

Over the summer, he completely rebuilt the squad and when the season started only Aaron Barnes and Chi Ezennolim remained from the group that had started the 2021/22 season. After two or three games, they showed signs of gelling and found themselves flirting with a play-off place in the autumn with some excellent performances, not least when they defeated Oxford City, who went on to get promoted, five-nil.

Things got a bit tougher in the winter months, and after a festive season double over Tonbridge Angels, they went on a poor run which saw them edging towards the drop zone. However, they finished the season strongly with results that included the defeat of champions Ebbsfleet United, and they finished in sixteenth place.

Since then, some Welling players, including Barnes and Ezennolim, have departed and a rebuild had started but the new incoming manager will have a ‘blank canvas’ and be able to bring in his own players as only two new players have signed so far.

It’s not an unfamiliar story for Welling as no manager has had more than one pre-season with the Wings since Jamie Day moved on during the 2013-14 season and Wings supporters can now expect the annual summer rebuild.

Speculation will be rife about who the new manager will be, but the board will be keen to get their business done quickly with their pre-season curtain raiser against Charlton Athletic just one month away.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.