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Reaction from Welling manager Mark Goldberg to 1-0 win over Maidstone United

Welling manager Mark Goldberg insists he won’t be getting away with his side’s impressive start to the season.

The Wings built on their opening day draw at joint-National League South title favourites Havant with a 1-0 win over Maidstone on Tuesday night.

Both sides were relegated at the end of last season but Goldberg’s new-look Wings have not looked out of place against such company so far.

Welling boss Mark Goldberg. Picture: Keith Gillard (14894988)
Welling boss Mark Goldberg. Picture: Keith Gillard (14894988)

“I’m certainly not getting carried away,” said Welling boss Goldberg. “We’re pleased with the first two games obviously but after 10 games then we’ll look at it and see where we are.

“We saw the opposition when the fixtures came out and maybe in some respects it’s a good time to get these teams but we’re a new team as well.

“We’ve shown that we’re organised and we have some quality as well.”

Welling’s goal came from a quickly taken free-kick by Luke Rooney against Maidstone, tucked away by summer signing Aaron Cosgrave.

“We said it was a question of catching them off-guard, that was how we were going to score, and Luke Rooney took advantage of that,” said Goldberg.

“We said before and at half-time, that’s how we’re going to score. We work on early crosses, early balls through but he was really clever with the free-kick and sometimes it takes that to win a game.

“Earlier on I felt (Aaron) lacked confidence in front of goal but he is growing into a man. If he carries on the way he’s going, then he’s got a really bright future.”

Goldberg was delighted with his team’s defensive work – a trait he has been working on since their first pre-season game.

“We were really organised, we kept our discipline,” he added. “We said we had to not lapse in concentration,

“As well organised as we were defensively, I felt on the break that we always looked dangerous. We created probably more of the opportunities and deserved the 1-0 win.

“It’s a fairly new team and they already know how to play with each other. They understand the formation that we’re playing, the way we defend together as a team and I always feel we’re capable on the break that we can always score goals. I’ve never been too worried about that side of things.

“But to get the whole team defending as a team has probably been the most pleasing point – not just from this game but from the previous game as well.

In the second half, we had the advantage of the slope yet they really went at us in the second half. I thought we were going to have a bit more possession, we had to be resilient but on the break we always looked dangerous.

“Right from the start of pre-season we told them how we were going to play, we didn’t mess around.

“Literally, right from that first pre-season game, everybody knew what their roles and responsibilities were.”

It proved a particularly sweet evening for Welling captain Rob Swaine, who was named man-of-the-match against the team he featured for in the second half of last season.

“What a leader,” enthused Goldberg. “He organises us but he leads by example and wins everything in the air.

“He isn’t slow, people think that, but he is deceptively quick and recovers very well.

“He reads the game and is a great captain for me, he was many years ago at Bromley and is proving to be again already now.”

Welling host another of the division’s fancied sides in Bath on Saturday before making the trip to Billericay on Tuesday night.

“We’re at home against Bath and we hope that we get a good crowd behind us,” added Goldberg. “We need to take our performance into Saturday and keep the momentum going, let’s get used to winning hopefully.

“We took some confidence from the Havant game but it was backs against the wall. To some extent we had to show the same resilience against Maidstone, I love the discipline of the players and I always feel that we’ve got a goal in us.

“It bodes well but it’s very early days and we’ve got to prepare right for Bath.”

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