In their last game before the festive season, Welling United visit Salisbury in the Vanarama National League South.

Rod Stringer’s Wings will be looking to extend their four game unbeaten run which has given them a nine point buffer between them and the drop zone. Their most recent game was last Saturday when they defeated Bath City one-nil.

Josh Redfearn scored the only goal and Rhys Lovett made two brilliant saves to ensure they went in ahead at the break. Although the Romans had a good share of possession in the second half, they ran out of ideas against a determined Welling defence and Lovett had a quiet last half hour.

While Welling were defeating Bath, Salisbury were disappointed to only claim a point at Slough Town. The Whites went ahead in the twenty-fifth minute when Jordan Ragguette’s cross took a deflection and flew home. The rebels were reduced to ten men with ten minutes remaining but claimed a point when Leon Chambers-Parillon scored in the ninth minute of stoppage time.

Then, on Tuesday, Salisbury were in action again and went down two-nil to an Aaron Blair brace at Maidstone United. That left them one place and three points behind the Wings in the league table.

At home, Salisbury have won four, drawn two, and lost five whilst Welling’s away record is two wins, two draws and six defeats.

This will be the first meeting between Salisbury and Welling as the hosts were only formed as a 

phoenix club in 2015 after Salisbury City were liquidated. However, the Wings have met with the previous club on many occasions, the most recent being on Easter Monday in April 2014. On that day, the hosts sprung into a three goal lead in just twenty minutes. Chris McPhee opened the scoring and James White notched a brace, all within a six minute burst. There was no further scoring as the hosts enjoyed a comfortable afternoon.

Stringer will have Anthony Grant back from a one match suspension and will be hoping that Chiori Johnson has come through training unscathed this week to challenge for a place should the Welling manager wish to change a winning team.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.