Lions visit gives Ford a nightmare

WELLING UNITED boss Andy Ford admits hosting Millwall at Park View Road on Tuesday night has come at a price for his side, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Wings confirmed yesterday that a hastily-arranged friendly will take place against their Coca-Cola League One neighbours, which will bolster coffers.

A crowd of over 4,000 crammed into Dartford’s Princes Park Stadium last Tuesday and the Wings can expect a bumper crowd ahead of their opening game of the season when Woking visit on Saturday.

But Ford, who was speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk today, was expecting to put his squad through some fine tuning and to work on set-pieces, ahead of their Blue Square South opener.

"I don’t personally as a manager like to have a friendly in the week leading up to the first game of the season, but the club want it because it’s a possible revenue earner for us," he said.

"We’re taking it on, on those sort of circumstances, but I will be playing players no more than 45 minutes and then I shall be putting some trailists and reserve team players in to give them a chance as well."

Ford’s men will now only train on Thursday night and two other training sessions are "now out of the window", as they prepare to face the full-time Cards.

"We’ve only got one more training session to do that," said Ford. "We haven’t done anything yet but I was hoping to do that Monday, Tuesday and Thursday this week, but this game has come up so we’ve had to take it."

Ford’s squad has reached the maximum on sixteen, following news that central midfielder star Jeff Minton, 34, has signed from league rivals Chelmsford City.

Milton has played for a number of League clubs down the years, including Tottenham Hotspur, where he started his professional career as a trainee. Other clubs include Brighton & Hove Albion, Port Vale, Rotherham United, Leyton Orient and more recently Grays Athletic and Canvey Island.

Ford has immediately appointed Minton as his new skipper.

"He’s experienced, he’s in his early thirties, I think he’s about 34 now, so he looks after himself. He’s a fairly fit man," said Ford.

"I’ve brought him in really because I felt we needed a leader in the team and someone in that position.

"Once he gets a few sessions underneath his belt, he’s probably not up to speed with the rest of the boys with the fitness point of view, but as soon as he’s up and running he will be an asset."

But Ford has shown Spencer Knight and Sanchez Ming the door.

"I had a lot of players in his position," Ford said of Ming. I think Sanchez can only play in one position. We have tried him in other positions, he’s a right-sided midfielder, that’s his best position.

"I’ve got Finny (Tony Finn) that can play there, Louis Fazackerely can play there and Jake Hobbs has come onto the scene.

"I’ve got 16 players at the moment and my budgets been used up so I haven’t got room to have Sanchez in the squad so that was the reason why."

Visit Welling United’s website: www.wellingunited.com  

Welling United v Millwall
Pre-Season Friendly
Tuesday  4th August 2009
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY