Fa cup glory hunt: Welling United.

This weekend sees the Fa Cup reach the first round proper.

It is the turn of the League teams to enter the fray and a chance for the lower rated teams to progress and look for that money spinning tie against a big Premier league team in round 3.

The first round of the Fa cup is a special round and it is of course the round where the television gets involved.  This year there has been a few David v Goliath ties and obviously the biggest one is the class of 92’s Salford City against the very much under-performing, league 2 side Notts County.  A game that the BBC spent no time snapping up to show this Friday evening.

My Fa cup glory hunt has so far taken me from Anwar Uddin’s Sporting Bengal United through Basildon, on to Hullbridge and then to Grays.

After the last round and a replay I am now following the Wings of Welling United after a 4-0 defeat of the Blues in the final qualifier.

Welling United will now face, what on paper looks like a fairly straight forward and winnable away tie to Barwell FC from the Evo Stick Northern Premier League.

Jarrett Rivers celebratwes his winner for Blyth against Hartlepool last season.

We all know though that football isn’t played on paper and the Fa Cup has a knack of throwing up potential banana skins.  This is without doubt one of those type of games.  Barwell come from the same league as Blyth Spartans, who are renowned giant killers in this cup competition.  Only last season the Spartans reached the 3rd round of the Fa cup beating League 2 side Hartlepool on their own patch before eventually losing out to championship side Birmingham, narrowly 3-2.

The Wings will be taken no chances coming into this game and will be looking to put on a professional performance against their Midland rivals.  So much so that manager Lou Fazackerley decided to rest a few of his key players against Guiseley in the league on Saturday, a game they ended up losing 2-0.

Barwell come into this game off the back of a 6-1 Fa Trophy drubbing at the hands of the Southern League side Leamington.  The Canaries as they are nicknamed currently sit 15th in the league with 23 points.  The Wings are presently in 18th place in the Conference on 22 points.

Last rounds, 4 goal hero Xavier Vidal.

The key player for Welling on Saturday will no doubt be last rounds four goal hero against Grays, Xavier Vidal.  The striker is top of the goalscoring charts for the Wings, netting 8 times so far in his 20 appearances this season.

The Barwell front line is likely to be lead by Anthony Carney who has scored 8 goals in 17 appearances this term.  Carney could be joined up front by Iyesden Christie, and supported by attacker Jamie Towers.

Welling United’s best performance to date in the Fa cup was in the 1988/89 season when they reached the 3rd round, where they lost 1-0 to Blackburn Rovers.

Welling United have produced some fairly famous players over the years, the likes of Tony Agana, Paul Barron, Steve Finnan and Andy Townsend  all began their careers there.  Danny Dichoio and Carl Jenkinson both spent time on loan there and former Yeovil legend Terry Skiverton made 73 appearances in 2 years before joining the Glovers in 1999.

Danny Kedwell scoring for Welling.

In 2005 The wings signed Danny Kedwell from kent side Herne Bay.  In 2 seasons at the club Danny scored 38 goals in 73 appearances for the then Conference South club.  He was Welling’s top goalscorer with 19 goals in both seasons at Park View Road.  Kedwell signed for Grays in 2007 for a fee of £12,000 before joining AFC Wimbledon in 2008.  He then joined Gillingham in 2011 and stayed at the Priestfield for 4 years, playing 118 times and scoring 40 goals.  Danny Kedwell now plays for top of the Conference South side Ebbsfleet United for whom he joined this year.

It is obviously going to be a tough game on Saturday for the Wings.  Barwell will certainly be up for the fight and home advantage and a vocal crowd could be their best chance of a victory in this tie.  However Welling are going to be big, big favourites but will need to put in a performance similar to last rounds win against Grays to make sure they are in the hat for the second round draw on Monday.

The Wings should have enough to get a positive result as even a draw at Kirkby Road would make them even bigger favourites in a replay at Park View Road.

Good luck to Welling this weekend and I look forward to following you in the next round.

Up the Wings!!