Aiming to bounce back from their disappointing performance on Tuesday evening, Welling United entertain Taunton Town in the F.A. Trophy at the J. Hearnden Skip Hire Community Stadium on Saturday. 

Last weekend, Welling beat Slough Town to end a sequence of four consecutive draws and extend their unbeaten run to five games. However, that was halted on Tuesday night at Braintree Town.

After a bright start, Welling’s defence crumbled, and they found themselves three down after twenty-four minutes. They then changed personnel and formation and pulled one back early in the second half through an excellent strike by Dominic Odusanya. 

Antony Papadopoulos almost brought the deficit down to one goal when hitting the far post with an angled shot, but in the closing minutes Braintree scored again and Welling were well beaten.

They now take a break from league action and would probably not have chosen to start their Trophy campaign with a game against another club from the same league, but they do, at least, have home advantage. Visitors Taunton have made a solid start to the season and are in the mid-table group with twenty-four points from six wins, and six draws in their sixteen matches.

One of those victories was against Welling in Somerset back in August when they prevailed one-nil. However, they have hit a sticky patch of late and have only picked up two points in their last five matches, and haven’t scored in their last four outings. 

When the Peacocks visited Welling last season, they won one-nil through a goal by Zac Smith with eight minutes remaining, and in the three league meetings between the two sides since Taunton’s promotion, the Wings are yet to register a goal.

Danny Bloor, the Welling manager, will have to assess injuries to Kain Adom and Crossley Lema sustained on Tuesday, and will have to hope that Jack Burchell suffered no set-backs following his return to action, before selecting his starting line-up.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.