Odin, no need to bashfully apologise, you deserve credit for this! I am sure brother Bexleylion will agree! Starting this thread in the close season, when there isnt much online activity about us or our rivals isn't that well timed, but hey, what in life is?!

When the new season starts I may also start a bookmaker speculation thread, as surely with our combined knowledge we can get some bets right, then have the richest fans in the league!

A really useful introduction and overview of our history is here, a bit out of date for some of our recent activity, but this helped me catch up on some of our ups and downs over the years en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welling_United_F.C.

This site gives a sound overview of the latest non league stories www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Football/Non+League/National+League+South

Reece Grant always amused me, as he was so argumentative, picking rows with match officials, players, managers, and a recent online post from him after one of our matches which said "Youve seen the welling now f#c* off home" amused me, as I wasn't sure if he was talking about the opposition fans or us!

Kids football starts at 7 a side for under 7s on mini pitches so they get lots of touches of the ball, but I have waited until my son is 12 to get him into a team, as this is the age they play 11 a side on full size pitches. He had his first trial and was knocked back, as he is great at dribbling and scoring, but not having been in a team was inexperienced and had no clue he was supposed to help defend and dropped out after passing instead of moving for a return pass. So I've been telling him since about the three key parts are attacking, passing and defending, and all 3 are needed. I showed him an interview of Dipo Akinyemi, where Dipo LOVES the challenge of taking on defenders and being a menace and a big problem to them, and played the first 40 seconds repeatedly to my son to show him this is the mindset he needs www.youtube.com/watch

Welling 4 Worthing 1 highlights, so much great individual and team play and great goals, best game of the season? www.youtube.com/watch

I read this online the other day, which was great, as in your head you can hear Clough saying this, "The boss of the company I used to work for had an executive box at Forest and he knew Cloughie very well. He told us about a very well know player who was on the verge of signing and then it all went quiet. My boss asked Cloughie what happened and Cloughie replied "Nobody who has syphilis is going to play for this club."

I wonder if he ended up playing for Dartford?!

Ron, you are spot on, it is over a month since we last played, at Slough. It is the silence that is creepy, so far not a single player confirmed as departing or arriving (and I include a certain defender in that statement!). But it will make our first pre-season game interesting, to see if we recognise any players from last season!

The calm voice of reason continues to moonlight at Gosport, here is his interview with ex Wing Kristian Campbell. www.youtube.com/watch

It was great to see Dipo for York against Bromley, made suffering an uninspired Bromley performance almost bearable, hopefully Sonny Fish will play a game for someone easy to get to as like Dipo I would go to a game to watch him play. Here's Dipo's highlights from the just completed season
www.youtube.com/watch

Kain Adom has posted his Welling goals onto YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch

The highlights of the 2023/24 London Under 13 Sunday Cup Final - Lewisham Borough v Welling United (2nd Half) are here - we won!

www.youtube.com/watch

I love poker, and RonF wisely spotting the closeseasonitis match withdrawal symptoms reminds me of a kind of relevant story about a famous poker player Nick the Greek. Near the end of his life, he was near-broke and playing $5 limit draw poker games in Gardena, California. When asked by a fellow player how he could once play for millions and now be playing for such small stakes, Dandolos supposedly replied, "Hey, it's action, isn't it?". Similarly, an interview with an ex Welling player that doesnt actually mention Welling at all is Welling, isnt it!

I was amused to see the Welling squad for the coming season, dont worry, I know it is early days, and this is how things go in NLS, and that behind the scene tons of talks will be ongoing with players, old, new, borrowed, bruised, but just now our squad is kind of compact! wellingunited.com/teams/first-team/

David Kamara has moved on to Peterborough, here are age 17 highlights though watching I wondered if they could have chosen some more flattering examples. www.youtube.com/watch

A year later that was addressed www.youtube.com/watch

Thinking of last season's highlights, an outstanding moment was Tristan showing us against Hampton and Richmond his favourite band is the Stranglers. I've never seen a challenge like that before! Ive a silly sense of humour, so was amused to read a loyal Welling fan say he was unlucky to get a red card in this match, 5 minutes 40 seconds into the highlights shows the ref's shameful decision to Tristans calm reaction to a light challenge from the opponent. I can't believe we didn't appeal the red card! www.youtube.com/watch

Highlights of Dartford's 1 - 6 defeat in a pre-season friendly show Dartford it's not good if you don't close down or mark opponents! www.youtube.com/watch

Football media coverage keeps expanding, it feels odd to see Sam Cox give his first team talk to be then put on YouTube, but interesting to see his businesslike side as a manager, and interesting to see his approach as he gets the players to contribute ideas, so they are talking rather than just being talked at. "Sam Cox's first meeting as Oxford City Manager" www.youtube.com/watch

Sam always impressed me as a really good communicator, so it shouldnt have surprised me for YouTube to recommend a vid "How This Manager Turned REJECTION Into SUCCESS" www.youtube.com/watch and then see it is a 20minute feature on... Sam Cox. He's signed Chi and Kai, just a shame Oxford are in the Northern League as it would be nice to see how the 3 ex-Welling guys are doing.

This Welling United Football Channel has games from 2018 - 20 Steve King, Goldberg and Bradley Quinton times www.youtube.com/@WUFCTV/videos