By Mark Doig
GOALS at the start and the end meant that Faversham Town and Welling United will need a replay to resolve their FA Cup first qualifying round tie.
In recent seasons, the FA Cup has not been kind to the Wings and they have been knocked out by teams from levels below them three times in the last six years. Being drawn away to one of the favourites to win the division below where the Wings now play meant that there was serious risk of it becoming four in seven, and they are not out of the woods yet.
Ryan Maxwell’s Welling got off to a great start when going ahead in the second minute. While the Faversham defenders paused appealing for offside, Kaan Bennett burst away down the right wing. Goalkeeper Tom Hadler had no choice but to defend his near post allowing Bennett to square across the six-yard box where Nahum Melvin-Lambert was waiting to score his fifth goal of the season.
Neither side created chances in the next half an hour as Welling’s two centre-backs dealt with all that was launched at them, including Jack Steventon’s long throws, while the Wings found the hosts’ defence equally hard to break down.
Fumnaya Shomotun fired over for Welling after switching wings with Demaray Anyadike before Faversham’s Eniye Amgbaduba couldn’t keep his header down in first-half stoppage-time.
Amgbaduba had another opportunity early in the second period with a drive that Mackenzie Foley had to turn over before the Welling goalkeeper had an easier save to make when dealing with a Jack Evans free-kick.
Kane Haysman replaced Amgbaduba just after the hour-mark and the hosts adapted their style. Moments later, Welling had a great chance to go two up when Melvin-Lambert gave Bennett a sight of goal but his low shot came back out off the post.
Goal-scoring opportunities again dried up and it started to look as though Welling were going to see the match out until the hosts levelled with three minutes remaining. A header out of defence fell kindly to Kieron Campbell and his low drive went through a forest of legs and just inside the post.
Deep into added-time, Faversham had a great chance to win it when Nathan Wood set up Josh Ajayi but he fired over from fifteen yards.
After a gruelling 90-plus minutes, the teams will have to do it all over again when they meet at Welling’s Anthony Martin Community Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Welling United: Foley; Ramsay (Otseh-Taiwo 76), Bertram-Cooper, Majoyegbe, Arthur; Blackman (Reynolds 76), Miller-Rodney (Smith 68); Anyadike, Bennett, Shomotun (Howard 58); Melvin-Lambert (Azeez 68).
Substitutes not used: None.
