TALKING POINTS

Dom Roman – @DomRoman

Dom looks ahead to the NLS game

BREAD & BUTTER

Back to the bread & butter of National League South football! Time to forget the Worthing thrashing, and remind ourselves that the Gulls have been on a great run of form in the league, and sit exactly where we want to be. In terms of the mentality of these players the Trophy loss doesn’t concern me, they are a good group of lads who I’m sure have responded well in training and will want to make amends against Welling United at Plainmoor. Our undefeated run at home feels very precious after all these months, and a strong professional performance to keep it intact would be just the ticket before we head out on trips to St Albans and Slough.

RETURNING HEROES & LINE-UP

Well you can be very sure that Jordan Dyer and Cody Cooke will return to the line-up against the Wings! Both of these players have been absolutely key to United and what they’ve done well in recent months. Dyer may not make the impression on supporters that Sam Dreyer does, but he’s equally important, whilst we don’t need to examine Cody Cooke’s influence on the team again, it’s been talked about enough (he’s vital!). Jay Foulston may remain on the sidelines and Jordan Thomas is suspended, so unless we see some tinkering, Finley Craske and Matt Carson will start in the full back roles. In the attacking areas I’d expect the exciting Dylan Morgan to return, and Paul Wotton has decisions to make on whether to start the likes of Omar Mussa and Lirak Hasani.

FULL BACKS

You can’t deny that going from Thomas & Foulston to Craske & Carson feels like a downgrade, and that would be one area of concern heading into this game. If we assert our control on Welling, then perhaps neither will be tested defensively and going forward Carson certainly can create something dashing down that left flank. But if the away team put pressure on down the channels and attack far post balls, then they could find some joy. Of course it’s also a chance for both of them to show why they deserve a chance in the team, and Matt Carson especially, to remind us why he was one of our stand out performers in August/September (admittedly in a wing back role). Good luck to both of them.

THE OPPOSITION

Welling United have three ex-Gulls in their squad, Chiori Johnson, Dan Martin & Rhys Lovett, but it’s debatable whether we’ll see any of them at Plainmoor. Lovett was injured on NYD at Maidstone so could miss out, whilst Martin and Johnson started in mid-week against Weymouth, but were both subbed off in the 2nd half. The Wings did manage to beat Weymouth, and that would have been a relief for manager Rod Stringer after three consecutive losses over the Christmas/New Year period. This leaves Welling 18th with 27 points from 25 games. On their travels they have only won 2 out of 12 games and travel to this game as heavy underdogs. With United’s previous struggles against bottom half teams this doesn’t automatically mean a comfortable win, but our quality should be enough.