Competition amongst the squad is now considerable and everyone will need to perform to their very best level to break into the side and stay there, says Welling Town chief Kevin Oakes

WELLING TOWN chairman/manager Kevin Oakes says he is searching for consistency from his side going into their FA Vase tie tomorrow.

 

The Boots are currently in fifteenth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table, having collected seven points from as many games.

“Our season to date has been what we may have expected to a degree, when assembling a new squad and new management team, inconsistent,” said Oakes.

“If we can simply improve on this then we’ll be well set to achieve what we set out for.

“We’ve been a little unfortunate with injuries and unavailability, several midweek games have hindered training in recent weeks and with hindsight we do appear to have played a fair few of the sides who have started well, but with a couple of recent additions and one or two bodies now returning from injury, we’re looking forward to the next run of games and putting some decent results on the board.”

Oakes added: “We’ve been brilliant in patches with good performances and results against two fancied sides in Phoenix (0-0 at home) and Whitstable (a 3-1 away win), but then very poor in other matches.

“Competition amongst the squad is now considerable and everyone will need to perform to their very best level to break into the side and stay there.”

Welling Town put up a fight during their Kent Senior Trophy Preliminary Round tie on Tuesday night, losing 2-1 at league leaders Erith & Belvedere.

“I felt we gave them a scare in the second half and could have got something from the game late on,” said Oakes.

Welling Town make the trip down to Peacehaven & Telscombe in The FA Vase Second Qualifying Round tomorrow.

The hosts are in second-place in the Southern Combination League Premier Division table with six wins from their seven games and are level on 18 points with leaders Newhaven but with a game in hand.

“We only ever seem to be drawn away in the cups and it’ll be another good day out on the coast tomorrow against Peacehaven & Telscombe,” added Oakes.

“We don’t know much about them other than their recent results are good and they’re pushing for promotion from their division.

“They don’t appear to concede many goals, so we’d expect a tight contest but there won’t be many better sides than Erith & Belvedere at Step Five this season, so if we can match the performances of a few evenings ago, we’ll go in to the game confident and looking to get a positive result and move into the next round.”

Oakes has snapped up the likes of Kweku Ansah (Corinthian), Jack Hope (Erith Town) and Jon Pilbeam (Glebe) recently, although Hope is cup-tied tomorrow.

Zak Byron is still out injured with an ankle problem and Luke Exall is also on the sidelines with a long-term knee problem.

Peacehaven & Telscombe  v  Welling Town
The Isuzu FA Vase Second Qualifying Round
Saturday 23 September 2022
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Piddinghoe Avenue, Peacehaven, East Sussex BN10 8RJ