After their recent mini-revival, Welling United were brought crashing down to earth with a 2-1 defeat at Poole Town on Saturday.

Despite going in at the break one nil up, courtesy of a Dean Morgan penalty, they can have few complaints at coming home empty handed, even if the winner was very late in the day.

The Wings now take a break from league action with an F.A. Cup third qualifying round match against Swindon Supermarine.

Their visitors warmed up for the tie with a 4-1 victory at Bishops Cleeve on Tuesday night moving them up to third place in the Division 1 South and West division of the Evo-Stik Southern League. So far this season, they have only lost once in all competitions, 2-1 in a league game at North Leigh.

They won five and drew one in September and in their 12 league and cup games so far, they have twice scored five, and have hit the next four times on four separate occasions.

To reach this stage of the cup they have won 5-1 at Odd Down AFC, 4-1 at Portishead Town, and 1-0 at home to Farnborough.

It has been a little easier for Welling they have only had to negotiate one match to get this far, and they did so with a comfortable 2-0 win at Whyteleafe with goals from Adam Coombes and Rickie Hayles.

In their last game at Park View Road, they defeated Eastbourne Borough 3-1, with Pierre Joseph-Dubois scoring twice and Dan Walker adding late on.

Financially, Welling will want to progress as there is £7,500 prize money for the victors. However, for the players it would be a great boost too.

Goalkeeper Chris Lewington, who was man of the match at Poole, admitted “I think the F.A. Cup’s a fantastic competition. I’ve been lucky enough to reach goodish levels, the third round I got to once. I’d love to repeat that again for us.

“I think it’s a good little distraction from the league. Get a nice little run going, it’s good for the fans. Hopefully, we can get to the first round and go from there.”

Manager Mark Goldberg is also looking for progress in the country’s premier knock-out competition, partly for financial reasons. “The F.A. Cup, commercially to the club, is so important. We’re too good a team to be where we are, we’ve got too good a players to be where we are in the league right now.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.