It was a hugely disappointing festive period for Welling United and they now have another difficult game ahead of them with the visit of Weymouth. 

Mark Molesley’s Terras are currently in sixth place in the Vanarama National South although a grain of comfort for Mark Goldberg may be that it’s mainly their home form that has them so high in the table. Away from home they have only won twice however they have drawn six times on the road with just two defeats. 

The Wings have lost their last four games, including a four-nil trouncing at Dartford. Goldberg was away for the last three games, leaving Hugo Langton in charge with Osei Sankofa.

After the game on New Year’s Day, Langton said “Dartford have come into this game on the back of some very good results. They’re confidence is high. We’re the complete opposite. We felt that their strengths are running in behind into spaces and to get their wide players on the ball. 

“We hoped that if we could deny them those areas where they could hurt us, then we’d have a chance of getting something and doing something on the break but the first goal, a central midfielder picks it up and there’s not a lot of pressure on him. To be fair, it’s a great strike from twenty yards, but there was no pressure on him. No pressure at all.”

Explaining the return of Luke Rooney, Langton said “We thought we needed men out there today and Luke’s a man with lots of experience, rolls his sleeves up. It didn’t quite work. It’s not Luke’s fault. I’m not saying that the players went out there today to not have a go, we just fell short. Dartford are flying at the moment and right at this moment in time, Dartford are a better football team than us.”

There was a similar reason for playing Danny Waldren at centre half rather than the younger Jay Rich-Baghuelou. “Again, we were trying to put men onto the pitch.” he said. “Warriors. People who would roll their sleeves up and have a go. When you go into a game like this you’ve got to bring as much experience as you can onto the pitch.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s game, Langton said “We’re in a tough position and we’ve got to find a way of doing something between now and Saturday when we play Weymouth who are a top side, one of the best sides in this division. Then we’re away to Wealdstone and we’ve got to play Whitstable in the middle and that will be a hard game.”

Goldberg will be back for the Weymouth game but even while he has been absent, he has been involved in team selection. He said “Everything that is being done is between the management team. It’s not one person that’s deciding.”

One player who will not be available is Theo Widdrington whose loan from Bristol Rovers has expired. However, Welling will hope to have Ejiro Okosieme back after suffering concussion on Boxing Day.

When Welling visited Weymouth earlier in the season, Connor Dymond’s dismissal after thirty minutes reduced them to playing a ‘backs to the wall’ game and they kept the hosts to long range shots until conceding with fifteen minutes remaining, Jake McCarthy’s strike was saved brilliantly by Dan Wilks but Brett Williams was first to the rebound to net.

Welling are now just two points above the drop zone so need to get back to winning ways urgently.