Welling United are delighted to confirm the arrival of goalkeeper Ben Winterbottom on loan from Brentford.

The 22-year-old stopper came through the academy at Blackburn Rovers before being snapped up by Liverpool in 2019 where he represented the Merseysiders’ U18 and U23 sides.

His performances for the Liverpool academy caught the attentions of Brentford who then brought him to west London in January 2021 on a two-and-a-half-year deal.

Having played for Brentford B, he now joins the Wings in search of first-team football on an initial loan deal until the beginning of January and has already featured in two friendlies this summer as a trialist.

“I’m delighted to be here,” said Winterbottom.

“After speaking to Danny, he mentioned the way he wants to play which suits me – I much prefer playing football than going longer all the time – and I’ve been excited since I’ve been in.

“It’s really important for me to play and wrack up a number of games and, from what I’ve seen from the team so far, it will be a successful season. My goals are to keep as many clean sheets as I can, win as many games as we can and challenge.”

Wings boss Danny Bloor added: “We needed to bring another goalkeeper in to work alongside Lee Worgan and Ben will come in as our first-choice goalkeeper.

“We’ve seen Ben in action for us in a couple of friendlies and he’s had other options, but he chose Welling United as his option.

“Many thanks to David Langridge and Lee Dykes at Brentford for getting this one over the line. It’s a great relationship for a club like Welling to have with a Premier League club like Brentford.

“We’ve already seen he’s a great character both on and off the pitch, his distribution is second to none and I’m really looking forward to him wearing that number one jersey for us.”