Football Season Guide

Welling defied the odds and managed to beat the drop by the skin of their teeth at the end of last season. They looked down and out at one point in March but a late and improbable revival, sparked by the appointment of Loui Fazakerley as a player-manager, lead to a dramatic escape and secured the modest South London club another campaign in the top-flight of non-league football. Truth be said, the Wings were quite lucky and could have had very few complaints if they had gone down, given their quite dire run of form midway through the season. Fazakerley was granted the opportunity to build on the good work at the tail end of last season and is the new full-time manager of the club. The hopes are that he goes on and emulates Jamie Day, who also started as a player-manager and enjoyed lots of success in his years at Welling before departing at the end of 2014. But Fazakerley faces a steep task and any Welling fan must be looking at the upcoming season with a sense of trepidation. The current side just does not look good enough to survive in what is becoming an increasingly competitive and tough National League division, now awash with full-time sides who have rich Football League history and demand success. Welling, on the other hand, will be quite happy to just tread water in the bottom end of the table and will certainly be delighted if they managed to avoid the bottom four again. There has been exodus of vital players from the squad over the summer as Dominic Vose, the standout player of the team in the second half of last season, Jake Gallagher and Joe Healy have all moved for pastures new. That means that the midfield three that carried the side last season has been ripped apart. Moreover, good fenders like Jamal Fyfield and Jake Gallagher will not be around as well, while Jonathan Henly will be missed on goal. Welling have gone for young and unproven players as replacements but the additions of Xavier Vidal and George Porter look interesting and may prove coups. Sahr Kabba is likely to be the main man in attack and he will need to convince at this level. The good news for the manager is that Harry Osborne and Michael Chambers turned their loan moves into permanent ones and should provide continuity at the back. But things are still looking quite tough for Welling and they will do very well to beat the drop.