WELLING’S failure to reach the play-offs in 2009 has been highlighted as a factor in the current financial crisis engulfing the club.

The Wings have been served with a winding-up petition after failing to pay a £90,000 debt to HMRC.

An initial hearing is set to take place next Wednesday and Welling have had a player embargo imposed upon them by the football authorities until the matter is resolved.

However, Welling owner Barrie Hobbins conceded today the club’s problems did not simply arise overnight.

He said: “You could really go back a couple of years to find the long-term cause of this.

“We had a fairly high budget under Andy Ford and we looked at the time in his first season after Christmas that we could be on our way to the play-offs.

“With that in mind our hearts probably ruled our heads in that we kept the budget the same when we were losing money because we didn’t want to be accused of not wanting to go up or not being ambitious.

“We were losing money and probably could have shut it off there and then by reducing the budget we had, something we didn’t do.

“In the last three months of that season we were losing money and didn’t make the play-offs.

“On top of that we lost our sponsors and the league lost the Setanta money, both of which cost us £15,000 for each.

“That’s £30,000 we’ve lost straight away and then the recession kicks in.”

Mr Hobbins added: “When Andy started his second season the budget was fair, even though it wasn’t quite as much.

“Andy was trying to get the budget back to the figure it was through the supporters club by seeing if they could help.

“Our results were a bit of a disaster in the first two or three months of last season and we went out of the FA Cup quite early.

“Jamie Day came in and the budget had been reduced by around 15 percent.

“Things picked up in terms of results but not support wise because we were out of the glamour competitions.

“It is something which has been building for a while and I could see where it was going.

“I knew we needed people in because we were struggling along on our own and it wasn’t enough.”

Mr Hobbins’ search for fresh faces ultimately failed to pay off when an unknown businessman pulled out of a takeover deal at the last minute, prompting next week’s potential court date with the taxman.

He said: “Despite all the agreements with the Inland Revenue to pay the bills, you do fall behind and they said enough is enough.

“I do think there is a purge on football clubs because the government have stamped down on it and told the tax people to get the money off these clubs.

“We are just one of the sufferers because there are other clubs throughout the leagues in exactly the same position as us.”

If you are able to help the club financially, call 020 8301 1196.