Oct 24 2005

By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE name Danny Kedwell won't mean much to Town supporters.

But the pacy striker will be aiming to change that when he completes a quick trip from Herne Bay to Huddersfield next month.

Kedwell scored the 81st-minute goal which sealed Welling United's 2-1 win at Dorchester Town on Saturday and earned the Kent club a plum trip to the Galpharm Stadium in the first round of the FA Cup.

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And he'll be out to strike again as the Conference South side aim to cause an upset.

Scorer of 21 goals for Herne Bay in the Kent Premier League last season, Kedwell was signed by Welling manager Adrian Pennock in the summer.

Saturday's effort against League rivals Dorchester was his seventh of the campaign, proving that Pennock is a good judge of talent.

A former League player at Welling's county rivals Gillingham, Pennock's task is to get his club back into the national top flight of the Conference, where they spent 14 seasons until 2000.

That's a remarkable claim given that they weren't formed until 1963 and spent their first eight seasons playing local league football.

They made spectacular progress through the London Spartan and Athenian Leagues to reach the Southern League in 1979.

That was a year after they moved into their current ground Park View Road after the demise of Bexley United, a Southern League club who had been playing there.

Promotion to the Conference was achieved in 1986.

Welling were known for their consistency as members of the Conference, and they also made a habit of staging FA Cup runs in the late Eighties and early Nineties.

There were six successive first-round appearances during that time, and in 1988-89, a memorable home third-round clash with Blackburn Rovers, who won 1-0.

The club whose products include Andy Townsend and his fellow Republic of Ireland cap Steve Finnan (sold to Birmingham for £95,000 in 1995) were relegated from the Conference on a dramatic final day of the 1999-2000 season.

Since then they have been striving to retain that standard.

Paul Parker, the former QPR, Manchester United, Chelsea and England player, piloted them into the Conference South on its formation in 2004.

But he left three months into 2004-05 with Welling too close to the foot of the table for comfort.

Former Coventry and Republic of Ireland star Liam Daish had a short spell at the helm before Pennock was handed the job.

Having climbed away from the danger zone last season, Pennock's charges are now fourth in Conference South.

In the Cup, they beat Boreham Wood and Harrow before seeing off Dorchester, all three ties being away from home.

Saturday's first goal was scored by Matt Bodkin, one of seven former Gillingham players in the squad.

The others are defenders Barry Ashby, Mark Green and Danny Lawson, midfielders Darren Marsden and Rob Owen and striker James Pinnock.

Others to have played for top-level clubs are midfielders Adrian Clarke (Arsenal and Southend) and Jamie Day (Arsenal and Bournemouth).

Welling are next in action at Maidenhead United in a League game on Saturday.