Although beaten comfortably by Charlton Athletic, new Welling United manager Jamie Coyle was happy with his team’s performance.

“I thought the boys were outstanding.” he said. “We worked on Thursday night on not being in possession of the football and getting our shape right. I thought they equipped themselves really well. We looked compact  and we frustrated Charlton at times. That’s what we were looking for. I was a little bit disappointed with the quality when we did win it but overall, really, really pleased with the performance.

If we can build on that, we’re only two weeks into pre season, the early signs are really promising. We haven’t really worked on our forward play as much as we knew we weren’t going to have much of the ball today. It was more a defensive shape and compactness.”

Several trialists have been training and played against Charlton but he needs a more manageable size squad and he chose to leave himself out of the game against the Addicks. “I’ve got to make some tough decisions on certain players.” he continued. “Ideally, I would have loved to have got an hour but I think the priority is now making a decision on the players. I want to get the squad sorted out so that we can start working on shape with the players that are going to be here at the start of the season.

“I’m going to make some decisions and we’re going to whittle the squad down. We won’t be taking 22 players (to VCD Athletic) on Tuesday night.

“It’s been a long close season because of the lack of players that were here from last season and it’s been a complete rebuild. We’ve got a real good bunch of lads that want to play well for the team. That’s the minimum requirement for any player that I sign.

Ben Jefford was a surprise inclusion in the Welling squad. Coyle said that he was having a trial and said. “He hasn’t trained or played for five weeks and I thought he was outstanding today. He’s a class player and I was really impressed with his performance.”

Another former Wing, Sam Corne has agreed terms to rejoin the club. Coyle confirmed “We’re going to sign him today which I’m really pleased about. He’s someone with an affiliation for the club. I played against him twice last season and he was outstanding at Braintree.

Corne fits perfectly into the type of team that Coyle wants to sign. He went on to say “Watching the team last year, I watched them three or four times, I don’t think they had that desire. A lot of the boys that have come here have been here before have a real affiliation for the club and want to do well.

“The aim is to do better than last year. We’ve got a reduced budget that’s sustainable for the club and I’m confident that the players we’ve got here are not here for the money. They’re here because they want to do well for the club and that’s half the battle.”

Having stated that he had to reduce the squad size, he has not ruled out the possibility of someone new coming in if better than what he already had. He backed that up by saying. “There was a trialist that we picked up on Tuesday at Phoenix Sports (Christie Pattisson) and I thought that he did really well today.”

Of the players that did not feature he explained that Alex Cathline is looking for somewhere that would increase his chances of getting minutes on the pitch.“He played for Bishop’s Stortford on trial on Tuesday night and did really well . They looked at him again today and we look forward to getting some feedback tonight.”

Injury has ruled out Jack Parter from both games so far but his first run out is imminent  “Hopefully Tuesday.” Coyle said.”It’s only a stiff groin.”

Joe Healy has been away on honeymoon but Coyle hopes to get him onto the pitch against VCD. He said “He might have a little bit of jet lag but we’ll try and get him in on Tuesday and get him some minutes. For all the years I’ve played with Joe, he’s naturally fit so I’ve got no issues or worries with his fitness.”

Overall, he is excited that he has a team full of winners. He said “If you look through the team you’ve got Sean Francis (who along with Pierre Joseph-Dubois has re-signed) who is very vocal and a leader, Ian Gayle’s exactly the same. I know him from when I was at Dartford and he was in the academy. He’s a very strong in the dressing room as well. Connor (Dymond) is a natural born leader in the centre of midfield with Jack Parkinson, and Corney too.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.