It was men against boys as Dartford put Welling United to the sword at Park View Road. For Wings chairman and caretaker manager Mark Goldberg, it wasn’t a happy experience.
“It certainly wasn’t the birthday present that I was hoping for today, to lose six-nil. I was really hoping that at least we would be able to show that the young lads are capable of competing but to go one nil down that quickly, however much I tried to prepare and organise the side, the whole idea was to try and stay in the game for twenty minutes.”
“Everything was planned and it all went out of the window after one minute.”
Goldberg has had similar experiences in the past and explained “At my time at Bromley when I had success, I’ve lost six-nil before, it’s just how you bounce back. We’ve got a young side, a new side and they don’t quite believe what we’re capable of yet and they haven’t got the experience to be able to pick themselves up when they go one-nil down after one minute.”
“Dartford, even if they go two-nil down, they know how to pick themselves up. They’re an experienced side. They’ve got leaders and experienced players who exploited it.”
Despite the disappointment, Goldberg still has faith in his squad. “I still believe that we’ll compete at this level of football.” he said “We’ll do what it takes to improve and we’ll add players that we need and we’ll build and build until we get it right. We’re six games in.”
“If we finish fourth from bottom, or we lose the play-off final as we did one year, we start in the same place next year. I know that we’ll be good enough not to go down and that’s the most important thing.”
Confirming that he only intends to manage the team in the short term he said “I am looking to pass the baton on. I’m not looking to stay as manager but after that performance it’s unlikely that anyone who was interested is likely to take it on but it won’t stop me from looking after those boys until I find the right person, I have a responsibility and this ship’s not going down.”
Picture supplied by Dave Budden.