Sandwiched between an F.A. Youth Cup tie and an F.A. Cup match at Maidstone United, a London Senior Cup match against against Cockfosters was low priority for Welling United.

Consequently, only Charlie Penny from the first team squad was involved as the next stage of his rehabilitation following injury, and the Wings made nine changes from the team that played in the Kent Senior Cup seven days earlier.

It took a while for the inexperienced Wings to get a feel for the match and they were indebted to Joel Hanington for two fine saves to keep the scores level.

After Junior Adeoye floated a header onto the bar and over, Cockfosters broke Welling’s resistance when Desi Dadomo finished following a goalmouth scramble.

Penny came close to levelling just before the break when heading Jack Mallon’s cross just wide of the near post.

Two minutes after the break, Tony Robinson levelled when Cockfosters failed to deal with Michael Dillon’s deep free kick but Aron Crockett put the visitors back ahead when bundling Adeoye’s cross home at the near post.

Hanington was again called into action making a save from Dadomo before Welling enjoyed their best spell of the match.

Tarkan Mersin’s raking passes and Craig Hewett’s speed stretched the visitors’ defence and the latter came very close when rounding Gary Malone before seeing his effort from a tight angle scrambled off the line.

Cockfosters made the game safe with eleven minutes remaining through substitute Adam Ali.

Although beaten, the make-shift Welling team could feel pleased with their efforts against a far more experienced team.

Welling United: Hanington, Green, Kilman, Wootton (Khan 63), Mersin, Dillon, Mallon, Robinson, Olayakun (Hewett 45), Penny (Bailey 63), Adekunie.

Unused substitutes: Cotterell, Heath.

Cockfosters: Malone, Robinson, Waldren, Moore, Morton, Small, Crockett, Jovanovic, Simon (Durnin 55), Adeoye (Ali 66), Dadomo (Valenti 69).

Unused substitute: Bush.

Referee: Paul Johnson

Welling star player: Tarkan Mersin