Following disappointing displays on Saturday, at Maidenhead and Eastbourne, Welling have taken remedial action with three new signings.

At Maidenhead, centre halves Sean Francis and Rickie Hayles both failed to see the game out and it is likely that Francis will be out for the season.

Hayles was able to return on Tuesday alongside Dean Leacock but the latter failed to see the game out and Hayles would have been replaced if there had been a suitable replacement,

As a result, Welling have gone out and recruited two centre backs. Their supporters will need no introduction to one of them, Ben Martin.

He was one of the squad who won the Conference South Championship with Welling four seasons ago. Since departing at the end of that season, he has been at St. Albans City until released a few weeks ago.

Their supporters will be less familiar with the other new centre back, Phil Walsh, although he has played against the Wings on occasions, most recently for Bishop’s Stortford a month ago.

Other clubs for whom he has played include Bath City, Newport County, Dorchester Town, Dagenham and Redbridge, Ebbsfleet United and Chelmsford City. He even had a loan spell at Barnet as a striker scoring three goals in eight games.

His other claim to fame is that his brother-in-law is Kelsey Grammar who played Frasier Crane in Cheers and then spin-off Frasier.

A third signing has been made with another former Wing, Tyrone Marsh, joining on-loan from Dover Athletic. His original spell at Welling was on-loan from Oxford United before signing permanently for Ebbsfleet.

After leaving the Fleet he went to Torquay United before moving on to Dover. He has slipped down the pecking order so will be pleased with some playing time.

After the game at Eastbourne, co-caretaker manager Harry Wheeler suggested that one of the injured defenders should return. He said “Hopefully, Matt Fish will be back on Saturday. He is back at Gillingham and they’ve re-habbed him and he says that by Saturday he’ll be fine.”

Whilst Welling need points to pull themselves clear of the drop zone, visitors Hungerford will be hungry for them for other reasons. They are currently three points away from the play off zone and will be hoping to take advantage of any slip up by Poole Town, one place above them.

Although the Crusaders have lost their last two away games, they will arrive at Park View Road on the back of two consecutive 2-1 wins against Concord Rangers and Weston-super-Mare so won’t be short on confidence.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.