Yet again, Welling United are on the road on Saturday with a Vanarama National League South match behind closed doors at Hemel Hempstead Town.

It will be their sixth league game of the season, but incredibly their fifth away from Park View Road. So far they have claimed just two points as Brad Quinton looks to find the right formula but their performance at Concord Rangers on Tuesday evening suggests that they are heading in the right direction.

They started well and had the better of the opening exchanges but they were unable to find their way through an obstinate Beach Boys defence. It wax not all one way though and Reise Charles-Cook made an excellent save shortly before half time. 

Three minutes after the break, Concord went ahead through a soft penalty but Welling levelled three minutes later courtesy of an excellent goal by man of the match, Lyle Della-Verde. There was no further scoring after that and a draw was probably a fair result.

On the same evening, Hemel Hempstead were hosting Dartford and the game was as good as over when the Darts went three up four minutes before the break. Although Hemel pulled one back with ten minutes remaining it was too little too late.

At home, the Tudors have lost all four of their four league and cup games. They started with a four-one defeat against Eastbourne Borough before Hampton and Richmond Borough claimed an only goal victory in the F.A. Cup. Their other home defeat was again a four-one reverse against Billericay Town. They have won twice away though, four-three at Braintree Town and two-one at Bath City.

When the two teams met at Vauxhall Road in January, Welling completed the double over the Tudors with a two-nil victory. Dipo Akinyemi scored his first Welling goal in the eleventh minute and despite the dismissal of Bradley Rolt shortly before the interval, Welling didn’t sit back and Korrey Henry made sure that they would claim the three points when adding a second with thirteen minutes remaining.

Hemel will be looking to end their run of consecutive home defeats whilst Quinton’s team will hope to build on Tuesday’s performance so it could be an enthralling encounter.

Image courtesy of Dave Budden