Welling United F.C.
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| Full name | Welling United Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Wings | ||
| Founded | 1963 | ||
| Ground | Park View Road, Welling | ||
| Capacity | 4,000 (800+ seated) | ||
| Chairman |  Paul Websdale | ||
| Manager | Jamie Day | ||
| League | Conference South | ||
| 2010–11 | Conference South, 6th | ||
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Welling United Football Club are an English football club, based in Welling in the London Borough of Bexley. They currently play in the Conference South.The 2010/11 season hasn't been a good one for them as the club had financial problems, nearly going bankrupt but lots of supporters chipped in and raised £90,000 for the club to pay off debts. Steve Finnan, a Champions League winner, started his career with the club.
History
Welling United Football Club was founded in 1963, by Sydney Hobbins a former goalkeeper with Charlton Athletic for his sons Barrie and Graham.They began as a youth team playing in local league football on a park pitch, they gradually expanded and began playing Saturday football in the London Spartan League. In 1977 they moved to the Park View Road ground, which had previously belonged to the defunct Bexley United (historically called Bexleyheath & Welling). They joined the Athenian League in 1978. In 1981 they progressed to the Southern Football League Southern Division.
After just one season at this level the club found itself in the Southern League Premier Division after the league was re-organised. In 1985–86 they won the league title by 23 points and were promoted to the Football Conference
Although they struggled in the Conference, only twice finishing above 11th place in 14 seasons, they did enjoy cup success during this period, reaching the first round proper of the FA Cup in six successive seasons, on one occasion memorably knocking out Kent’s only Football League side, Gillingham. They also made one third round appearance, losing 1–0 to Blackburn Rovers.
The Wings dropped out of the Conference when they were relegated on the last day of the season in 1999–2000 and returned to the Southern League.
In the 2003–04 season, under the management of former England World Cup player Paul Parker, the club finished in the top half of the Southern League Premier Division and were therefore able to claim a place in the newly formed Conference South. The first season at this level proved a struggle, and with the Wings rooted to the foot of the table for the first three months of the season Parker left the club by mutual consent.
Former Coventry City and Republic of Ireland player Liam Daish took charge of the team on a caretaker basis before the permanent position was handed to former Norwich City and Gillingham defender Adrian Pennock, who narrowly missed out on taking the club into the promotion play-offs. Pennock left the club at the end of the 2006–07 season. His last game managing the Wings finished in a 1–1 draw at home to Hayes. Pennock joined Stoke City in a coaching position under his former Gillingham manager, Tony Pulis.
On 16 May 2007, Welling United appointed Neil Smith as the new first team manager. However after only seven months in charge Smith parted company with the club on 7 January 2008. It was mutually agreed between the club and Smith that his reign as Wings boss would end.[1]
Andy Ford was appointed the new manager of the Wings on 31 January 2008. Despite losing 6–2 to Cambridge City in his first game in charge, Ford guided the Wings to safety and they eventually finished 16th. Welling finished 7th in the Conference South in 2008/09 under the guidance of Ford. After a poor start to the 2009–10 season Ford resigned stating he didn't think he could achieve what he wanted on the current budget. Jamie Day was announced as the new player/manager in November 2009.
On 12 August 2010, the club was served with a winding-up petition by HMRC, due for a hearing later that month.[2]. The Wings were given 14 weeks to pay the outstanding debt to the HMRC and thanks to the supporters were able to raise £60,000 to clear any monies owed [3]. During this period, in a Football Conference Hearing on 16th September 2011, Welling United admitted to a misconduct charge in connection with the outstanding HMRC debt. Resultantly an immediate deduction of 5 points was enforced on the club together with a suspended £5,000 fine [4].
Despite the Wings having a transfer embargo enforced and deducted 5 points by the Football Conference all within four weeks of the start of 2010-2011 season, Jamie Day's side were competitively competing for the Blue Square Bet South title. However, even though Welling United were in the top 5 for almost half of the season, a string of poor results in the final month of the campaign saw the Wings miss out on a play-off place by one point, with a final position of 6th.
Ground
Welling United play their home matches at Park View Road, which has been their ground since 1977 when they took over the ground which had been vacated by the defunct Bexley United. Prior to that date the club had played at a community sports ground in Butterfly Lane, Eltham. Having been unoccupied for some time, the new ground was almost derelict.
Erith & Belvedere have been ground sharing since the 1999 season. Improvements were made to the Park View Road ground in 2004, which included a new covered stand.
As a result of severe storms and gale force winds in December 2006, the floodlights at Park View Road were damaged. Due to safety reasons all the floodlight pylons on the Welling side of the ground were removed. The floodlights were put in place during the month of June 2007 and are fully functional, one pylon positioned in each corner.
Players
- As of April 2011;[5]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Current coaching staff
| Name | Nationality | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Jamie Day | |
Manager |
| Barry Ashby | |
Assistant Manager |
| Keith Levett | |
Coach |
| Dean Frost | |
Coach |
| Dave Richardson | |
Fitness Coach |
| Dave Lawson | |
Physio |
Notable former players
Steve Finnan- Andy Townsend
Danny Dichio- Paul Barron
- Terry Skiverton
- Tony Agana
- Ben Greenhalgh
- Danny Chapman
References
- ^ Welling United
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ "Player profiles". Welling United F.C. Retrieved 2009-06-18.