On Saturday, Welling United entertain Torquay United as the team with the league’s best home record hosts the side with the best away record.

Steve King’s Welling team come in buoyed by the fact that they ended their long win-less away run on Tuesday night. They visited Oxford City and came away with a one-nil victory courtesy of Bradley Goldberg’s penalty.

That doesn’t tell the full story though. All three of their forwards, Jack Barham, Goldberg and Danny Mills hit the woodwork, Anthony Acheampong had a header cleared off the line, and they had two good shouts for further penalties.

Whilst that win puts them in good stead, they know that Gary Johnson’s Torquay United will present a massive challenge. When they lost to Bath City in mid-January, that ended a run of ten consecutive league victories. However, since then they have beaten Oxford seven-two and then won four-one at Hemel Hempstead Town.

Amongst the run of ten wins, Torquay beat Welling three-one at Plainmoor. As a contest, the match was as good as done after fifteen minutes. Jack Edwards put the hosts ahead after just two minutes and Saikou Janneh added a second with less than quarter of an hour gone.

Although Mills hit the post for Welling, Jean-Yves Koue Niate added a third eight minutes into the second half. Goldberg pulled one back for Welling from the penalty spot, then Gavin McCallum hit the bar but full time Torquay had too much for the Wings on a boggy pitch and eased to victory.

When the two teams last met at Park View Road in September 2015 it was early on in Welling’s final season in the top division of non-league football. The Wings got off to a great start and went ahead in the eighth minute. Fabian Spiess could only beat out George Porter’s shot and Xavier Vidal followed up to finish.

However, their lead didn’t last long. While Welling dallied over making a substitution, Torquay made the most of their numerical advantage by levelling. Daniel Butler’s free kick from out wide deceived everyone and crept inside the far post.

It was then Welling’s turn to have numerical advantage when Spiess handled outside the penalty area as Afolabi Obafrmi closed in. The Torquay goalkeeper was dismissed giving Welling an hour to take advantage. Although Porter clipped the bar, Welling didn’t create enough and the visitors could have claimed all three points when Louis Briscoe missed a good chance at the end.

So depleted has the Welling squad been in the last few games, that they have only been able to name three substitutes. However King is hoping that Julien Anau and Nassim L’Ghoul will be able to play at least some part in Saturday’s game so that he can change tactics if necessary.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.