Weymouth have now been awarded the three points from their abandoned match with Yeovil Town so they are now safe.

I just read the Dartford board promised their fans Premier League football. Only problem was they didnt say it was Istmian Premier. 

Sam Cox's Wealdstone had a fab 1 - 0 win against table toppers Chesterfield yesterday, he's won both games as their interim manager. Despite that they're still only 3 points above relegation with 2 games to go. Oxford City, Dorking and Kidderminster are relegated, Wealdstone, York, Woking, Ebbsfleet and Boreham Wood could all still end up in the 4th relegation spot. Tough opposition for us next season whoever comes down.

My NLS play off picks are Maidstone, as now they're free of the distraction of the FA cup they can now always put their strongest team out in the league, and Chelmsford, who are the team that most impressed me this season as they are so effective in all positions, so really hard to play against. Maidstone's FA cup run will help them in the play offs as they know all about raising performance for individual games.

There is a strong rumour I heard from Nigel at the match yesterday that Welling won't be relegated this season. I have investigated the rumour, and it is true! So we're safe, with 1 game to go, which is cool, as I had a real bad feeling about having to go to Slough needing a result to stay up, as the name alone is so depressing, Slough. Results by us sent Dover and Havant down, now Dartford are relegated. We are so familiar with relegation battles our owners saw a change of manager was needed reasonably in time. But Dartford are used to success, so didnt recognise danger signs until far too late, so this whole relegation caught them by surprise. It's so competitive in the division below, no guarantee they'll come back straight away. Taunton, Eastbourne, Torquay, Hemel, Truro and Weymouth could all still end up in the 4th relegation spot. Taunton play Hemel next Saturday, that may be a relegation decider. The power of the curse of Dowse is even greater than the curse of Alan, surely Hemel can't survive with Dowse in charge?!

Runaway league leaders Hornchurch have been promoted to our League.

I'm going to the Slough game, hopefully the guys will put on a great show, now we finally dont have to worry about relegation, as we've been rather bogged down in recent games against low placed teams. Although it was great to see us safe yesterday it was a bit sad to realise for lots of the players it was their last home game as a Welling player, but unlike last season which was a disappointing underperformance year, this season has had lots to be pleased about, as we'd never been like Dover and Havant so far behind it was virtually impossible to catch up, we always gave ourselves a chance, playing with self belief even at our lowest point of 9 points from safety and yesterday finally got the well deserved rewards of that positivity.

I watched Rod's post match interview a second time, as it is so nice we are now able to look forward and plan, now knowing where we are playing next season, so good to get an idea of his future plans for us.

When you sit down and carefully look at the impact he has made it is really impressive, as other teams changed managers without improving their results, but Rod and Kevin made a massive impact


Danny's stats P28 W5 D9 L14 F31 A52 GD-21 24/84 points

Rod's stats P17 W7 D8 L2 F24 A18 GD+6 29/51 points


Under Danny we conceded an average of 2 goals a game, and it makes it hard to win if you have to score a couple just to catch up with the goals you have conceded. Rod's halved the average number of goals conceded, to just a goal a game, and I really hope we can keep as many of the defence as possible. Dartford have gone down, I always rated Max Statham highly, cool if he came back.

There was a fantastic buzz around the ground yesterday with the marquee adding so much, a real feel good factor. Unlike the relegated teams we have a lot to look forward to next season, as I really enjoy watching managers building teams over the summer, and then seeing how they do in the league. Other managers commented on us being in the ascendancy, no reason that ascendancy can't carry on into next season, as I really don't fancy another relegation scrap!

Looking forward to watching the Taunton/Torquay game this evening, without caring what the result ends as.

Are they still charging £9.50 or whatever per match..?

I'm listening to the Taunton match, apparently they have no training ground and don't really train. The training is the Matches.!!

N Jones wrote:

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Are they still charging £9.50 or whatever per match..?

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 No idea.

so, 50 points was the safety figure for this season.

Torquay and Truro are now safe.

Every chance we will be playing Maidstone next season!

Sam Cox's Wealdstone lost 0 - 1 last night, conceding in the 88th minute, which is gutting for them as a point from that game would have been so valuable.

Next season the NLS will be tough, as relegated Dover and Havant never really got going this season, but everyone else has been really competitive so there won't be easy games next season. Of the new teams, Hornchurch won the division below by a big distance, so they will be a good side in the NLS. And we have Dorking back in the NLS next season,

Our Slough game will be remarkable, as it will be the one game this season where we havent either been very low in the table or in relegation trouble, 45 games of stress, 1 game of comparative relaxation!

The stress of these relegation 6 pointers has been clear in the recent performances, which weren't a treat to watch, and it kind of summed things up when the thread about the coach to Havant got more views than the thread about that actual turgid game!

Fortunately the ref blew the final whistle, otherwise the game would still be goaless after hundreds of hours play! But it will be interesting to see Rod rebuilding the team, and having a proper pre season to get things together. Great Sonny was watching our last home game, I saw Taylor Curran and Will Wood watching, and it was nice to see the team spirit of the watching, even though they werent playing, a contrast to last seasons lack of team spirit, where our guys not in our 16 were sitting heads down watching other games on their mobile phones rather than watching us play.

It was so funny to read Dave mentioning Hemel have sacked Dowse with one game to go, as Dowse is the Mr Bean of non league football management. I love his interviews, as I have finally worked out what it is that is so funny, he will give an interview slagging off his team for 7 and a half minutes, then in the last 30 seconds he will say he takes full responsibility, when it is clear he throws the team under a bus whenever things go wrong. But in his head he really does think he is taking responsibility and doesnt understand using interviews to blame the players is counterproductive as his teams do badly as players get sick of being publicly told they are not good enough. Although Dartford are now relegated it will be interesting to see how they do next season, as our former manager Ady Pennock hasnt exactly got off to a great start with them, and that division is so competitive it would be a surprise if they came back at the first attempt. But he also has a pre season to build a new team, it will be interesting to see how many ex Welling players end up there. Their fans seem very excited about an 18 year old player Olly Box, I think we should sign him just to wind their fans up.

Ah, we are free at last from the threat of relegation. Free at last. Relax! Relax!

Financially you want Woking or Eurostar to come down , while you want Chatham to come up out the 4 teams in their league.

Boreham Wood have survived due to Arsenal Ladies / U23s playing there , they have little fan base

Jamison wrote:

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If reports are to be believed jimmie, Palace, West ham, charlton and orient all battling to sign Olly box.

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 I saw him playing for Corinthian on loan last season. He was a handful at that level.

Goodnight Taunton

I'm amazed that it's all done and dusted before the final Saturday. 

So, we've got Boring and Dorking joining us next season, two well funded teams. Havant and Dartford were well funded but were relegated and Taunton ended up relegated yesterday. I remember the Taunton manager had a tantrum about Rod standing on the pitch during our game, trying to get Rod carded or in trouble, by childishly telling the ref "he's standing on the pitch, what are you going to do about it?" and his hypocritical moans about our pitch, so I am not too sad to see them go.

Dartford were relegated and finished fourth from bottom, so there could yet be a twist in their (impartially viewed as a neutral Welling fan) tragic pitiful embarrassing shambolic collapse failure of a season.

If Torquay fail to attract a buyer by the June-ish NLS league meeting, and the league are not convinced Torquay have funds to complete their fixtures next season, Torquay would be relegated, and that would save Dartford. Apparently there is a preferred bidder in place for Torquay, who presumably waited to see if Torquay would be relegated before making a purchase, but they have two months to sort out that sale or they will likely be relegated.

Hornchurch are promoted to NLS, Chatham Town are looking sure of a play off spot, and after all the fixtures against Cornwall and Somerset based rivals, let's hope Chatham could win their play off as it would be nice to have a local rivalry after Dartford's shameful exit from the NLS. Dartford should NEVER have jealously mocked us for our bus stop, the moment they did that their fate was assured!

Erith and Belvedere had, by their standards, a remarkably successful season, finishing bottom of the table, scoring 24 goals in their 37 games so far, well done, that is far better than any Welling fans could have predicted.

Braintree v Bath tonight
Maid in Stone v Aveley tomorrow night

Maidstone 2 Aveley 1 won with a 92nd minute goal

Chelmsford 2 Braintree 3 aet

George Alexander scored in 90+2 to take to extra time