WELLING manager Jamie Day believes his side have gone some way for making up for the disappointment of missing out on the play-offs last year ahead of this week’s double header with Sutton United.

The Wings just missed out on a top five finish 12 months ago but this time they more than made amends, securing third place to set up a play-off semi-final first leg visit to Sutton United this evening before completing the second leg of the tie at home on Sunday.

Day said: “On a personal note I’ve been with most of these boys for two seasons now.

“We were very unlucky not to make it last time so it is a huge opportunity for us now and it would be a massive achievement for us to be in the Conference.

“The players are all looking forward to the games with Sutton because we’ve had a good season as apart from losing 1-0 at Eastleigh, our recent record is excellent.

“We’ve kept a lot of clean sheets and are on a good run.”

But despite the optimism, Day is the first to accept Sutton will be no pushovers and says the number one priority going into the first game is to make sure Welling are still in a strong position for the second leg at home on Sunday.

The boss explained: “They will be two tough games against a Sutton side who beat us at their place and drew here in the league.

“We went 3-2 up in the away game and then had a bit of a mad spell which saw us end up losing 4-3.

“Those two games don’t really matter though because it is all about how the players perform in these two matches coming up.

“Sutton are a big side who can play a bit as well and a lot depends on how we do on Wednesday as to whether having home advantage in the second game will count for anything or not.

“We need to make sure if we do get beat then it isn’t by much so we have enough to come back to our place with and get a positive result.

“Hopefully we will win both games so it won’t even come down to that.”

And Day has the added bonus of a fit and available squad to choose from, although this will come at a price for a pair of unlucky members of the squad.

Day added: “All 18 players are up for selection.

“I can only choose 16 for the final match squad so unfortunately two players will miss out.

“It isn’t a problem I’ve had to face too often though.”

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