Welling had just about kept themselves up at the end of last season and the relatively inexperienced Loui Fazakerley was maintained in the job of a manager at the start of the season. He signed some promising players from the divisions below in Xavier Vidal and George Porter but there was no escaping the feeling that Welling are too lightweight on both experience and quality to compete at this level. The team started with a win but then went nine games without a success and started to struggle at the foot of the table. Yet the Wings were playing some good football and at times were hard done by negative results. They stopped the poor run with a shock success at high-flying Gateshead and actually masterminded a run of four success in a row that moved them way up the table. The team had a sudden surge of confidence and played some bright attacking football as the likes of Reece Harris, Sahr Kabba, Vidal and Porter formed a pretty potent attacking unit. Yet little did Welling know that a somewhat lucky 2:1 win over a strong and physical Lincoln side in October would be their last one for a long, long time in this season. The confidence of the squad started to erode week after week, even if they were still getting the odd draw to keep themselves afloat of the bottom four. Indeed, things started to get worrying for the South London side in December as they delivered a few completely insipid displays and were clearly lacking in both quality and application all over the pitch. Fazakerley was now being found out of his depth as he just had no solutions how to make the team stronger and more resilient. He kept on insisting on a style of play that was way too attacking for one of the minnows in this league and Welling kept on getting punished. They were hammered 4:0 by Grimsby early in January and then a poor home defeat to a limited Barrow side a couple of weeks later proved the ending for the young manager, who had gone ten games without a league win and dropped to third from bottom. Dean Frost took over as a manager, having part of the coaching staff during the successful Jamie Day tenure, and he shook up the squad a bit. A few new players arrived to bolster ranks and Welling started to play with a bit more mettle and energy. But the clear lack of belief was such that the winless run only kept growing as the Wings dropped some costly points from good positions. There was the odd excellent performance as leaders Cheltenham were actually held to a draw at home and a strong Eastleigh side were kept at bay too. But by then things were looking increasingly hopeless in terms of the team staying up. They gave the fans a glimmer of hope after winning two games in a row over Easter, overcoming Woking at home and then defeating Tranmere for a shock away success. But just when it seemed like there was a bit of an opening, the Welling players collapsed for a late loss at the hands of Kidderminster and with that their demise was sealed. They finished the season on a real low note as Chester, Altrincham and Boreham Wood all handed them heavy defeats as the squad completely stopped trying. Indeed, Frost left before the end of the season as Mark Goldberg took charge of first-team matters and is expected to become owner of the club too. It remains to be seen whether the South London club will be able to rebound with the former Bromley manager in charge next season.
