Welling won't be easy - Still
The Town are on the road again on Saturday when they travel to Welling in the first round of the FA Cup – their fourth straight fixture on the road.
Welling stand between the Hatters and a place in the second round and manager John Still – as ever – is all too aware of how difficult the game will be for his side.
“Welling’s home record is very, very good. It’s a club I know well and I know the people that run Welling, it’s always a good place to go and enjoy football,” the manager said at his press conference on Thursday.
“I enjoy watching my team or just watching a game there.
“It’s going to be the FA Cup away from home, I don’t care who you play it’s going to be tough.
“It’s nothing to do with the league and in cup football lots of different things happen than normal, as it’s a one-off.
“We’ll be well prepared, we know it will be a tough game, but you know what and you must get bored of me saying it, I don’t know a game that isn’t tough.”
Welling lie eighth in the Skrill Premier following their promotion as Conference South champions last term.
Jamie Day’s side have remained part-time but their impressive form this season stems from a solid home record – the Wings have lost just once at their Park View Lane home so far.
“You look at it and we’re full time, but I think part-time clubs train three times a week, so we only train one more time,” Still said.
“A lot of the lads work, but they are still really fit especially if they’ve got manual jobs.
“I think it’s preparation that we’ve got over the part-time clubs more than fitness.
“I’ve been that solider in the Dagenham side that got promotion. We couldn’t get some people to become full time players, we couldn’t do it.
“We let some really, really good players go because they had good careers at part-time club. Lots of these sides have very, very good players, so I’m not surprised.”
The boss admitted he might have “a little tinker” with the side for the tie with goalkeeper Elliot Justham, midfielders Jim Stevenson and Alex Lawless and striker Mark Cullen set to be involved in some way.