Following two games on the road, Welling United return to home turf when they host Slough Town in the Vanarama National League South on Saturday.

Defeat at Tonbridge Angels on Tuesday night was disappointing for the Wings following an encouraging draw at Chippenham Town. That was fully deserved, and they could even have claimed all three points.

However, their performance at Tonbridge warranted nothing and Rod Stringer’s team are teetering above the relegation zone on goal difference only. Surprisingly, that has led to assistant manager and first team coach, Kevin Watson, being relieved of his duties.

While Welling were losing on Tuesday night, Slough were also on the wrong end of a defeat when beaten at home by Chippenham. Lewis Miccio gave the Rebels a half time lead but two quick-fire Chippenham goals in the second period gave them the away win. 

Away from home, Slough have won three, drawn three and lost nine, and are in seventeenth place in the table, ten points ahead of the Wings. They have only won twice in their last six games, however both were against teams pushing for promotion, Maidstone United and Worthing who they beat four-nil.

This is the return fixture between Welling and Slough this season. When they met in Berkshire in November, the Wings inflicted defeat on a Slough team that has only lost four times at Arbour Park this season. Josh Redfearn and Gene Kennedy gave the Wings a two goal lead and Chiori Johnson made it three-nil six minutes after the break. 

Slavi Spasov pulled one back seven minutes later and Sam Evans reduced the deficit further midway through the second half. Although Welling had to dig deep at times, they held on and finished against ten men after Dan Bayliss was sent off in stoppage time.

Head to head results between the two clubs are mixed. In the last five meetings between the two clubs, two have ended with Welling, two were draws, and one was won by Slough. Last season’s encounter ended in a four-three victory to the Wings with Taylor Curran scoring the decider in stoppage time.

Kennedy and Dan Martin were missing on Tuesday evening and Stringer will hope to have at least one of them back as he is likely to again shuffle his pack in an attempt to find the winning formula.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.