I think it's going to be a lot harder this year, warns Welling United boss Jamie Day

WELLING UNITED player-manager Jamie Day says his side are looking to mount another push towards the Blue Square Bet (Conference) South play-off’s this season.


The Wings finished in third-place last season but after seeing off Sutton United in a two-legged play-off semi-final, they failed to clinch promotion after losing to an early Lee Noble strike in the winner-takes-all final showdown away to Dartford.

Welling United open their pre-season campaign tomorrow, with a visit from newly-promoted neighbours Charlton Athletic, which is expected to attract a huge crowd to Park View Road.

Day, 32, who started his career at Arsenal, says he is looking forward to the game against Chris Powell’s League One title winners.

He said: “The boys have been in for two weeks, worked reasonably well, so I’m looking forward to Saturday’s game.

“Obviously they’ll be ahead of us fitness wise and stuff.  I’m looking forward to it and it’s nice to get a game under our belts.

“There will be a decent crowd tomorrow.  Obviously they had a good season last season. There will be a few people there and it helps the club for the season ahead.”

Day has lifted his troops following their disappointment on the final day of last season – and is ready to mount another serious push towards the play-offs again.

“Obviously we were disappointed that we didn’t win, but we had a good season,” reflected Day.

“Dartford were probably better prepared to go up than we are as a club. 

“We’ll knuckle down again and try and hopefully get ourselves into the play-offs this season again.”

When asked how he is treating the game tomorrow, Day said: “We’ve got 15 from last year who we’ve kept or re-signed. We’ve got six younger lads who have been promoted around the first team squad and then we’ve got four trialists who we’ve got to look at tomorrow, see how they get on.

“We’ve got 25 but we’ll probably play 22 so a couple will miss out, so it will be an experience for the younger ones to be involved in a game like that.”

Day added: “I think pre-season is good to get the players fit. I think the games can be false so we have to try and make it realistic. We have to get them ready for 18 August, that’s the main thing for us.”

The Wings then make the short trip to Eltham to face Steve Chapman’s Cray Valley (Paper Mills) side next Tuesday.

The Kent League outfit have defeated East Grinstead (4-3) and Dulwich Hamlet (3-1) during the past seven days.

When asked which squad he will take to the vastly-improved Badgers’ Sports Ground warm-up, Day replied, “It’s a bit of both. We’ve got four games and we want to get some game time into all of the boys. We’ll look at some of the trialists over those two games as well. It will be used for the first team and we’ll look at a few players who we need to make a decision on.”

Along with tomorrow, the Wings face lucrative home games against Millwall (24 July), West Ham United (28 July), Cambridge United (31 July) and Crystal Palace (4 August).

Day added: “We’ve got five big games at home, which should bring some decent money into the club. They’re games we’re looking to get fitness out of rather than results as we’re playing against teams who are in a much higher league than us.

“In the other five games where we’re the bigger team, we’ll be looking to stamp our authority in those games and get results and have momentum going into the first game of the season.”

Day admitted replicating last season’s league position will be a challenge, especially with some clubs splashing the cash.

He said: “I think it’s going to be a lot harder this year. Like I’ve said before, there’s five or six clubs who are spending a lot of money, but we’ve got a decent squad and a good base to work with but we’ll be looking to do the same again next season.”

Meanwhile, Welling United have confirmed that gates will open at 1pm.  You can pay on the turnstiles on the day of the game.

Admission prices: £12 (adults), £7 (concessions) and seating in either of the stands is £2 extra.

Visit Welling United’s website: www.pitchero.com/clubs/wellingutd

Welling United  v  Charlton Athletic
Pre-Season Friendly
Saturday 14^th July 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Park View Road, Welling, Kent DA16 1SY