On Saturday, Welling United travel West again with a visit to Gloucester City.

Last Saturday, Welling had to dig deep to win at basement club Weston-super-Mare and they can expect another difficult game this weekend.

In the first half Welling had chances but Weston goalkeeper Luke Purnell was in good form. After the interval, Weston had more of the ball but they didn’t trouble Dan Wilks with a direct shot and they paid the price towards the end. Brendan Kiernan troubled the Weston defence throughout and after he had been fouled in the penalty area, Bradley Goldberg converted emphatically.

Sanchez Ming made his second Welling debut on a month’s loan from Dulwich Hamlet at Weston and they have another new loanee available this weekend. Mo Bettamer has come in on loan from Barnet for te rest of the season. He was prolific for Staines Town last season and was good enough in a struggling Braintree Town team this term to convince Barnet to sign him.

Gloucester City are just one point and two places clear of the relegation zone so will be scrapping for points against the third placed Wings. At home they are draw specialists having had no fewer than ten deadlocked games out of eighteen at their Evesham base. They have only won two of them, versus Oxford City and East Thurrock United, both in August.

However, they had a good win at St. Albans City last Saturday so won’t be short of confidence. They were one-nil down at half time but second half goals from Jake Jackson and Fabian Robert gave them plenty to celebrate.

When the two teams met back in October, Welling’s comfortable three-one win took them to top of the league. Kiernan put the Wings ahead after just three minutes. It took them until four second half minutes had passed before they scored again through Nassim L’Ghoul.

Matt Paterson added a third so that Joe Parker’s goal for Gloucester was a mere consolation.

After a really difficult spell, Welling manager Steve King will have some options up front. As well as the services of Bettamer he will also have Danny Mills back after his harsh three match ban. King likes to keep his opponents guessing and it will be interesting to see how he sets up his team.

Last season’s corresponding fixture was on a very windy day and with the ground very open in a quiet area out of town, it was difficult for either team to play. At times, goalkeeper punt outs held up in the gale and started coming back at them.

However, one moment of cleverness by Joe Healy with six minutes remaining was enough to give Welling the points.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.