Having ended their poor run with victory last Saturday, Welling United travel to Hemel Hempstead Town this weekend looking to build momentum.

Their three-two victory against Hungerford Town took them out of the bottom two and gave new manager Bradley Quinton his first victory with Welling United. It was no cakewalk, however, as Hungerford were equally in need of a win

When Anthony Cook put the Wings ahead early on, it looked as though it could be a straight-forward afternoon but Liam Ferdinand levelled soon after. Cameron James put the Wings back into the lead with a superb individual goal and the Wings went in at the interval ahead.

There didn’t seem too much danger in the second half until Matt Jones levelled out of the blue with fifteen minutes remaining. Quinton reacted by throwing on two strikers and was rewarded with a winner with five minutes remaining. If James’ goal was brilliant as a solo goal, fellow Colchester loanee, Diaz Wright, finished a wonderful team goal. He started the move and continued his run into the six yard box to finish Korrey Henry’s inviting low cross.

Two more players came in on loan and made their debut in that game. Romoney Crichlow-Noble has joined on loan from Huddersfield Town for the rest of the season. He was spotted by the Terriers while at Enfield Town and had a loan spell at Bradford Park Avenue last season before spending the first half of this term at Hartlepool Town.

Also on loan, is eighteen year old Bradley Rolt who has signed for a month from Peterborough. He was one of the strikers brought on against Hungerford and was involved in the move for the winner. Quinton said “He’s been banging in goals for fun at Peterborough. He’s come on and put them under pressure.”

Hemel will give Welling a different challenge. Currently in tenth place, the Tudors are only four points away from the play-off zone with a game in hand and they have won six and drawn three of their twelve home games. They have gone five games without a win, but four of the games were on the road so they will look forward to returning to home comforts.

When the teams met in December at Park View Road, Welling came out on top. The visitors had enjoyed the better of the early stages but they were hampered when Sam Ashford was sent off when a bad, but not malicious, tackle gave the referee no option other than to brandish his red card.

Moses Emmanuel put the Wings ahead seven minutes before the break and victory was guaranteed when Nathan Green scored with five minutes remaining.

Although, that was only seven weeks ago, several Welling players have left the club in the interim period, the latest being Jay Rich-Baghuelou who has signed for Crystal Palace this week, so the first game will have little bearing on the return fixture.

In the corresponding fixture in Hertfordshire last season, Hemel were also disadvantaged by a red card when Kyle Connolly was dismissed for bringing down Nassim L’Ghoul who was clean through on goal. However, that didn’t stop Scott Shulton from putting them ahead midway through the second half. Welling continued to press and were rewarded when Gavin McCallum rescued a point for them with five minutes remaining.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.