Following Welling United’s great escape from relegation last season, their management team have been busy working to put together a squad for the upcoming campaign.

When Manager Rod Stringer and Assistant Manager Kevin Watson took over, the team looked doomed but just two league defeats in eighteen matches dragged them clear of the drop zone. They have kept the core of the squad that they had at the end of the campaign whilst bringing in new players that they believe will make them competitive this time around.

Their pre-season campaign started at Sittingbourne where they played two different elevens for each half. Despite having already announced twenty players, either retained or new signings, plenty of trialist were on show with six of the squad not participating. New goalkeeper Rhys Lovett, Anthony Grant, Reece Grant, Myles Judd, Jack Munns and Ben Wells missed out.

After an early scare when the hosts’ Mitch May’s shot came back off the post, Welling went ahead in the eleventh minute. One of the trialists got on the end of a brilliant Elliott Long through ball and lifted it over goalkeeper Harley Earle and into the net.

Although Welling had the lion’s share of the first period, they didn’t create too many further opportunities, the closest being when Anointed Chukwi’s shot was deflected just over.

Early in the second period, another Welling player, looking to make the most of his trial, outmuscled his defender before his lobbed effort landed on the roof of the net. Martell Taylor-Crossdale shot just wide before creating an opening for the same trialist whose effort went the wrong side of the near post.

Another opportunity came and went when a quick free kick took Sittingbourne by surprise but also a Welling trialist whose delay in shooting allowed a defender to get across to block.

Eleven minutes remained when Taylor-Crossdale curled a beauty into the top corner. Then, less than a minute later, Cameron Andrews created an opening for the twice close trialist to slot home.

Jay Beckford had a shot tipped over for the hosts with five minutes remaining before Hadley Tossell headed home from the resulting corner.

Watson spoke after the game saying “I thought both elevens did very well. We played our 3-5-2 shape and we’ve got the right bodies to play in the right positions. We scored some good goals and I thought that we tried to play in the right way which is the pleasing thing. We have a way that we want to play. We’re not going to play back to front quickly.

“We’ve got very good midfielders that can handle the ball in terms of two sitters, and then both tens in Longy and Zain (Walker) so you’ve got to utilise that, We’ve got options with Chuks up the top of the pitch where you can play a little bit longer if you need to."

Fitness levels looked good and that also pleased Watson. He continued “Michael (Schweiger)’s done really well with them in pre-season. We train day times. We get two hours on a Tuesday and a Thursday. We’ve got a lot of work into them but the boys come back exceptionally fit these days, it’s not like when I was playing. They probably only have a week, or two weeks off, then they’re back in the gyms so you can get into the ball work almost straight away now.”

Stringer and Watson have difficult decisions to make with trialists impressing. Watson admitted “It’s a case of who we can get in, who we need to get in, what the budget dictates. Obviously, not all of these boys are going to be with us but (there were) some pleasing performances from some of the trialists. We can’t take them all. It will just be a case of taking the ones that we can in the positions are needed. What we want is healthy competition for places. I’m not going to say that we’ll have that in every position, but as near as possible, we need that.

“I thought that the two boys in the central positions in the second half, a trialist and Cam Andrews, were outstanding. They didn’t give the ball away, they were tenacious, good energy levels and I was delighted with those two.”

Welling United squad: Andrews, Bramble, Burchell, Chukwi, Johnson, Kennedy, Long, Perkins, Pitterson, Taylor-Crossdale, H. Walker, Z. Walker, Williams-Lowe, Winfield, Trialist x 8.