Welling stated their second season in the Conference Premier knowing that they were up for a big scrap in the battle for survival, given their modest resources and the loss of some vital players over the summer Ross Lafayette was the biggest loss, the top scorer leading to Luton, while Blaine Hudson and Kurtis Guthrie were sizeable departures. Jamie Day relied on his knack of finding cheap and promising players in the lower leagues but the additions in the summer were uninspiring and the Wings’ squad looked short on quality and depth at the start of the season. Indeed, they struggled at the start of the season and failed to win any of their opening seven games while suffering a few emphatic losses. But Day started to get things together after the challenging start and a few good results in September lifted the team out of the bottom four. In fact, they went on a run of five games without a loss and also lost just one in nine. Tyrone Marsh was proving a lively and prolific presence up front while Harry Beautyman was proving a driving force from midfield. But the latter earned a big move to Peterborough in November while a small squad started to feel the strain of a hectic run of games. They recovered a bit in late November and early December, earning four wins in six games heading into the festive schedule. But the South London club were rocked by the departure of the hugely popular and highly successful Day when the manager decided to accept the approach of a more ambitious and financially resourceful Ebbsfleet side. That left Welling in a lurch, with a number of games coming up in a short period and no one to take charge. The club decide to give young Jody Brown a chance at this level after he had excelled with Grays in the lower divisions. But it proved an experiment that failed badly as Welling went into a free fall in the coming weeks. A number of players departed and new additions into the squad had to be integrated in January. Most of them failed to work out, with the exception of Dominic Vose, and Brown watched his side lose a game after game. The cushion to the drop that Welling had before the turn of the year kept them clear of the bottom four but things were looking gloomy as confidence in the squad dipped. Brown was eventually let go at the start of March, having secured a pitiful one point in nine games in charge, and veteran defender, Loui Fazakerley was put in caretaker charge for the rest of the season. He sought to get back to basics and restore some of the values of Day’s tenure. Indeed, a draw at Gateshead and a win at Lincoln in consecutive games stopped the rot. There was still lots of work to be done as three losses in the next four games kept the team some six points off safety before the final four games of the season. But superb displays earned wins against Kidderminster and Wrexham at home. These two wins were enough to put them ahead of Alfreton in the safety places before the two sides met a week before the end. Welling did superbly well to hold on for a 2:2 away draw, even if they played with ten men for most of the game, and that point was enough to secure them safety for next season. Fazakerley deserves lots of credit as he galvanised a team that was on its knees before the final stage of the season and seemed certain to go down. Welling will now look to make the most of that escape and enjoy a more successful campaign next season, even it should be a real challenge again.
