Following last week’s defeat at Torquay United, and results elsewhere on Tuesday night, Welling United have fallen away from the top of the Vanarama National League South slightly.
However, as they are playing in the only league game in the division this weekend they have a good chance of making up some ground.
In order to do that, they will have to win at Hampton and Richmond Borough in a game rearranged due to the original game having clashed with an F.A. Cup weekend.
At present, Hampton are sixteenth in the table which is surprising after their fast start. They have only won one league game in the nine games that they have played since 15th September although they did win at National League Eastleigh in the F.A. Cup.
This week they have added Craig Dundas to their squad following the signing of Karl Oliyide from Hemel Hempstead Town last Friday. The latter opened his account for the club in a Middlesex County Cup game against Bedfont Sports on Tuesday night following their goalless draw at Gloucester City on Saturday.
Saturday was a tough day for Welling as they went down to their first weekend defeat of the season. At Torquay, they lost 3-1 on a quagmire of a pitch. They conceded twice in the first fifteen minutes and again shortly after half time.
Bradley Goldberg pulled one back from the penalty spot and there might have been an interesting finish had Gavin McCallum’s corner gone in rather than crashing back off the bar but it wasn’t to be.
Steve King, Welling’s manager, needs to keep all members of his squad fresh so he arranged a ‘behind closed doors’ friendly on Tuesday evening at Sevenoaks Town. They won the game 4-1 with goals from Julian Anau, Zac Newton, McCallum and Matt Paterson.
Last season’s game at the Beveree was on Easter Monday and ended in a draw that put a massive dent in Welling’s play off hopes. Welling had a chance to go ahead in the first half but after Goldberg’s penalty was saved, it came out to Jack Jebb who put it back into the middle and Goldberg tucked it away. However, as he turned away to celebrate he saw the assistant referee’s flag raised for a highly controversial offside decision.
On the hour mark, Welling went ahead when Jamie Philpot rose to head home a trade-mark Jebb delivery but Jebb’s afternoon turned sour soon after when he was dismissed for a second yellow card offence.
It looked as though Welling would hold out until the final minute of injury time when Brendan Kiernan’s long shot against his future club was deflected beyond Bailey Vose and into the back of the net.
Travelling Welling supporters may see a few familiar faces in the Hampton team as their squad includes former Wings Rian Bray, Tom Lovelock, Yado Mambo, Rhys Murrell-Williamson, Oliver Sprague, and Ricky Wellard.
Picture supplied by Dave Budden.