After their defeat at home to Wealdstone, Welling United returned to winning ways last Saturday with an excellent victory at St. Albans City.
Before that loss, they had won six consecutive Vanarama National League South games, five with clean sheets, and were unbeaten in eight. Now they will be hoping that last week’s success will be the start of a new unbeaten run. On Saturday they entertain Concord Rangers.
They had an early scare when Layne Eadie lost his man and fired a shot against the near post. After that Welling were the better team and deserved to go ahead through Joe Healy’s eighth goal of the season just before that break.
Jack Jebb extended Welling’s lead in the 66th minute causing the hosts to lift their game. Dillon Barnes made a couple of good saves but Welling’s swift counter attacks created further chances and Jeffrey Monakana saw an audacious effort tipped over by a back pedalling Dean Snedker.
Although Nathaniel Pinney pulled one back in injury time, it was merely a consolation and Welling returned home with the three points.
Sadly, that was Barnes’ last game for Welling as his loan from Colchester United has expired and cannot be extended. Manager Jamie Coyle will be hoping that Kleton Perntreou has recovered from injury otherwise there will be a new signing making his debut..
One definite absentee will be Ben Jefford who’s suspension continues however player coach, Jack Parkinson, will be back in contention having served his.
Supporters of Welling may recognise some of the Concord players as no fewer than five have worn the red shirt of the Wings. Jordan Brown, Ben Greenhalgh, Steve King, Lewis Knight and Harry Lee can all name Welling as a former club.
The two teams met three times in league and cup last season with Welling coming out on top on all three occasions. Adam Coombes enjoyed the two league games notching a hat-trick in each of them.
Whilst the Wings are unbeaten away since the opening game of the season. Their form at Park View Road can be improved. Parkinson admitted “We need to tidy up our home form a little. Our away form has been excellent. We just need to take that to our home.”
Despite Concord’s lowly position, they’ve only won two league games this season, Parkinson is not expecting a walk-over. He said “It’s going to be tough against Concord. They’ve got some good players and they’ve got a good manager.”. However, he is confident that a week with no midweek game will help. “We’ll have everybody fit and we’ll make sure we are ready.”.