After Saturday’s goal-less draw at Park View Road, Welling United travel to Eastleigh for their F.A. Cup replay with the victors visiting Stourbridge in the First Round.

Now with home advantage, full time Eastleigh will be odds on favourites but Mark Goldberg’s team will know that they can compete as shown in the initial fixture. Spitfires goalkeeper Max Stryjek made a number of saves whilst Dan Wilks was relatively untested.

However, the big talking point was the failure of the referee to award Welling a penalty despite them having two strong claims. Whilst Adam Coombes’ shout was off the ball and might have not been seen clearly, the foul by Charlie Seaman on Anthony Cook was blatant and the referee admitted there was contact, but not enough.

Welling have to put that behind them now and start afresh at Eastleigh’s Silverlake Stadium but they will go into the game confident that they can compete. Goldberg said “We’ve got to dust ourselves off and realise that we’ve got another crack at it. We put everything into it and we didn’t just match them. I think it’s fair to say that we looked the better side overall.”

On the injury front Mark Goldberg was forced into making two substitutions on Saturday as Joe Anderson and Jack Jebb were cramping, but both should be fine to start on Tuesday. Goldberg was also hopeful that Aaron Cosgrave and/or Gavin McCallum will be available after having fitness tests.

Eastleigh have won the same number of games at home as they have away so Welling will know that the tie is still open and that they could add their name to the list of clubs that pulled of surprise results on Saturday.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.