When Welling United were defeated at Eastbourne Borough, they bounced back quickly.

On Tuesday they again tasted defeat so manager Steve King will be looking for a reaction once more.

After somehow managing to lose at Eastbourne Borough, they followed up by winning 4-1 at Chippenham Town. On Tuesday, they were beaten at home by Billericay Town and travel to play Truro City away on Saturday.

This season, they will not have to go all the way to Cornwall as Truro have lost the use of their home ground and are now playing their home matches at Torquay United’s Plainmoor ground in Devon. That is over 100 miles East of their own city so it’s almost an away match for both teams.

Defeat at home to Billericay was tough as Welling had bossed the first twenty minutes, hitting the post and missing another couple of good chances. They then conceded a needless penalty which was converted by former Wing Adam Coombes.

Even after that they were twice thwarted by Billericay goalkeeper Louis Wells and didn’t deserve to go in one behind. After the break they still looked good for an equaliser but the visitors scored twice in quick succession and Welling were beaten.

Now they travel to the West Country to play a team that have not got off to the best of starts to the season. They have drawn their two away games, 1-1 at Weston-super-Mare and 2-2 at Eastbourne Borough, but at home they have crashed 4-0 against Billericay and lost 2-1 versus Chippenham.

Following the draw at Weston, manager Lee Hodges and his assistant Chris Todd announced that they were departing and senior player Ben Harding has been caretaker manager for the last two games while the board consider their options.

Whether King makes changes remains to be seen. Thierry Audel has been carrying a knock and may be rested but everyone else is expected to be fit. However King may choose to freshen up the team by making a change or two.

Last season, Welling visited Truro on opening day and somehow found themselves two down at the interval. Aaron Lamont put Truro ahead from their first attack on ten minutes and Cody Cooke made it two on the stroke of half time after Welling had missed some good chances.

In his first match as player manager, Jamie Coyle scored twice before the hour mark, both headers from Christian Nanetti deliveries. It looked that if anyone was going to win it, it would be Welling but there was a sting in the tail.

River Allen took an injury time free kick from the touch-line just inside the Welling half and it caught in the wind and deceived goalkeeper Chris Lewington before clipping the far post and nestling in the back of the net.

Only Bradley Goldberg will be available from the Welling team that lost that match, only five Truro players from their Tuesday squad were in last season’s sixteen and both clubs have new management teams so a very different match can be expected.

Images courtesy of Dave Budden