There’s a return to Park View Road for Welling United when they host St Albans City in an Isthmian League Premier Division encounter this weekend.

After three defeats on the spin, Welling manager Ryan Maxwell will be working hard to get his team back on track. They were flat in their home loss against Hashtag United, but they made runaway league leaders Folkestone Invicta work hard to beat them on the South Coast two weeks ago.

Since then, they have had to kick their heels with two games on the spin postponed. They should have played a Tuesday evening game at Cray Valley (PM) and a home match with Carshalton Athletic. However, relentless rain meant that both were unable to go ahead. Welling have responded by paying for mechanical equipment to work on the pitch to give it every chance of being fit for Saturday.

Gary McCann’s St Albans team are in tenth place, ten points adrift of the play-off zone and eleven points clear of the relegation places. Last Saturday they ended a run of three consecutive defeats with a one-nil victory at Burgess Hill Town. Kieran Petrie scored the only goal in the twentieth minute.

When the two teams met at Clarence Park in October, Welling fell to defeat. Leo Sery put the hosts ahead just before half time but Eze Ebuzoeme levelled eleven minutes after the restart. Two minutes later Michael Bostwick put the Saints back ahead and that turned out to be winner.

Maxwell has rebuilt the Welling squad since then and two new players are in contention to make debuts on Saturday. Former Saint Gianni Crichlow and Stefan Vukoje both played for the Wings in a hastily arranged friendly with Hythe Town at Danson Sports last Saturday and the Welling manager will consider their attributes before selecting his side to play against St Albans.