Welling United boss Jamie Day: I’ve said before I’ve got a lot of time for this club and had some very good memories here. It’s obviously a new chapter now and we want to try to take the club forward and I think we will do

WELLING UNITED’S re-appointed manager Jamie Day says the club must win half of their league games to retain their Vanarama National League South status.

Mark Goldberg stepped down as manager after 27 games in charge of the club and has made the popular decision to re-appoint Day, who has been coach for their last six games.

Goldberg, who guided Bromley to their first title in 54 years in April 2015, became Welling United’s new owner in the summer and installed himself as manager after taking charge of the club’s last two games of their ill-fated Vanarama National League campaign in April.

The Wings are now second-from-bottom in the Vanarama National League South table having collected four wins, three draws and have suffered 12 league defeats, eight of them being at Park View Road.

Goldberg’s record as manager at the club stands at seven wins, four draws and 16 defeats, including last season.

Goldberg has turned to Day and former boss Adrian Pennock, who comes in as consultant, to maintain the club’s Vanarama National League South status, while he continues his business interests.

Day guided Welling United to the Conference South title in April 2013 but left after five seasons at Park View Road to take charge of Ebbsfleet United for 25 games.

Welling United travel to Canvey Island to take on Adam Flanagan’s Concord Rangers on Saturday in The Buildbase FA Trophy Third Qualifying Round.

“It’s going to be a tough game because they’ve picked up in the league and I know Flan and I know their boys will be working really hard,” said Day.

“He wasn’t pleased with the way that they started the season but I know he’s pleased with the way they’ve done over the last month and they’ve had some good results and they beat Gosport 5-2 last week so it’s going to be a tough one.

“We need to make sure that our levels of effort and commitment are there and hopefully we start raising our own individual levels and get through.”

Welling United are four points adrift of free-falling boom-and-bust club Margate and Day knows what he must do upon his return to Park View Road in their last 23 league games of the season.

He said: “We need to start picking up. We need to win half of the games we’ve got left to stay up so everyone’s got to pull their socks up, roll their sleeves up and give it a good go.

“We want to get as far as we possibly can in The FA Trophy but the league’s the priority but we just want to make sure we start winning games and that becomes a habit as well as getting beat.

“We’d like to win on Saturday. We know it’s not going to be easy. As long as we put in a good performance that’s all I can ask for.”

When asked about his return to Park View Road, Day replied: “It’s nice. I’ve said before I’ve got a lot of time for this club and had some very good memories here. It’s obviously a new chapter now and we want to try to take the club forward and I think we will do.

“It’s not going to be easy this year. It’s going to be tough and it’s going to be a lot of hard work and everyone involved to get where we want the club to be.

“We’re in a situation that we don’t want to be at the minute. Everyone’s got to pull together including supporters, which they have been good to be fair since I’ve come back and rallied behind the boys and the boys have got to rally themselves and we’ve got to get ourselves out of this situation.”

Welling United are a strong outfit at Park View Road but losing eight games at home this season is unacceptable.

Bath City are the next visitors to Welling on 3 December and Day knows a string of good results and performances at home will aid the club’s survival bid.

He said: “That’s what we’ve got to try to get back to. I’ve looked at the home results and they’ve not been nowhere near to what you expect from a club like Welling, who rely on home form, so we need to turn that around and use this to our advantage.

“We’ve got five league games where we need to get some good amount of points and try to claw ourselves back up the table.”

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

Concord Rangers  v  Welling United
The Buildbase FA Trophy Third Qualifying Round
Saturday 26^th November 2016
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Thames Road, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 0HH