Good Friday’s late postponement of Welling United’s game with Bath City means that they are on the road again for the sixth time in seven matches.

They start April with an Easter Monday encounter at third placed Hampton and Richmond Borough. Although Welling are back in seventh, the final play off place, so tight is the league that they are only seven points behind their hosts having played a game fewer so a victory would keep the Wings in the hunt for third place.

Although Hampton have only lost once at the Beveree, they have drawn eight of their other seventeen home games. Those dropped points are probably the main cause for them having dropped slightly behind Havant and Waterlooville and Dartford who are slugging it out for the title.

On Good Friday, their game at Dartford did go ahead despite the mini monsoon conditions. It looked as though they would come away with a hard earned point until Alfie Pavey broke their hearts with an injury time winner for the Darts.

As disappointed as Wings’ boss Jamie Coyle was with the late postponement of the game with Bath, he was able to take some comfort from it. “You try and take any positives away from a situation like this.” he said..“At least we’ll be fresh on Monday. Touch wood, the weather improves when we’ve got Hampton.”

He continued. “It’s tough. You can’t really do anything about it. We’ll prepare right for Monday assuming the game’s going to be on and try and get a training session between now and then.”

The postponement also allowed Coyle to get an additional first hand look at Hampton. He confirmed “I’m going to try and get to the Dartford game. I’ll have a quick shower and go and catch the second half.”

Should any further matches be postponed, Welling may have to play three games in a week which is not something that he relishes. “That’s not a good thing.” he said. “There’s no hiding the fact that we’re thin on the ground with our squad size and that’s going to be really important between now and the end of the season.

“We need to try and stay injury free because we’ve got a kid on the bench today and we only had three on the bench last week.”

Knowing that Welling now have the fire-power to worry other teams has given Coyle extra confidence. “We’ve got Jamie Philpot whose got five in six games. We’ve got Coombsie (Adam Coombes) who’s got four in four so in the final third we’re a real threat. With Coombsie, Jamie and Brad (Goldberg) up top, they’re always going to cause problems for defenders.”

Coombes’ ability will come as no great surprise to Hampton manager Alan Dowson as the Welling hit-man had a loan spell at the Beveree earlier in the season when he scored three goals in three games.

When the two teams met at Park View Road in August, a Ryan Moss fifth minute goal was sufficient to ensure that the visitors claimed all three points however Welling are a different proposition now and more prepared for the challenge.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.