After nearly two weeks without a game, Welling United return to action with a home game against Alfreton Town.

Jody Brown has freshened the squad with a number of new signings and will be looking to integrate them into the first team quickly.

Although Brown has made his name in building academies and bringing through young players, he felt the Welling team needed experienced heads and two new signings are expected to start against the East Midlands outfit.

Darren Purse may take up a central defensive role and international clearance has been completed for Rowan Vine and he will hope to start up front.

It has been a difficult start for Brown and he has had to ask players suffering with illness or carrying knocks to play just to get eleven players on the pitch. However, with the new signings and the break allowing players to recover, he will have the luxury of selecting from almost the entire squad.

Visitors Alfreton Town were one of the few teams to take all three points from Park View Road last season and they only just missed out on a play-off place. Josh Law put them ahead but Kurtis Guthrie levelled for the Wings, Shaun Harrad marked his Town debut converting a 57^th minute penalty and that proved to be the winner.

It is a surprise that they have struggled this term and are currently in 21^st position. They lost their first seven league games, including a 7-0 trouncing at Grimsby Town.

They have recorded three victories on their travels this season, 2-0 at Southport, 1-0 at Altrincham and 1-0 at Nuneaton Town.

Joe Ironside has signed an eighteen month contract for Alfreton following his release from Sheffield United. He had a successful loan spell with the club earlier in the season. This follows the signing of John Johnston from Crewe Alexandria, also until the end of next season. The Reds are also buoyed by the return of Dan Bradley following injury.

This will be the first meeting between the two teams this season. Welling are currently nine points ahead of Alfreton, but have played two games more, so both clubs will be aware of the importance of the corresponding fixtures.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.