After coming close to a National League FA Cup scalp last Saturday, Welling United crashed back down to earth with defeat at home to St. Albans City.
Unsurprisingly, Mark Goldberg was devastated and kept the players in the changing room for over half an hour after the game. “We’ve had a bit of an inquest.” he said “I’ve got to look at myself, where I’m going wrong. At the end of the day the buck stops with me.
“We had a long chat about that. I think it’s all a little bit too nice amongst ourselves. If I’m not giving that steel, I’ve got to seriously consider my position. I don’t want any knee jerk reaction because the reality is that we’ve still got a long season ahead of us.”
He continued “It’s very difficult after a game where your emotions are the way that they are. I’ve only got good intentions for this club and I’ve put my money where my mouth is. The reason that I’m manager is that I don’t particularly want to have to pay somebody else to do the job but if I’m not doing the job properly I’ll do what’s right for Welling United Football Club.”
Murmurings of discontent have been growing on social media and the club’s unofficial message-board and they were getting louder on the terraces as the game wore on. Goldberg was not surprised. “It’s justifiable.” he said. “They’re looking at what happened last year but our budget is less than last year.
“I’ve achieved something in that respect, putting a decent squad together but I’m not getting the squad working well enough yet and if they’re not going to react to my way of management, I think possibly I have lost that firmness and ruthlessness that I used to have.”
It’s rare that Welling are totally outplayed, and they are not conceding many but goalscoring, especially at home, is a real issue. “We weren’t being controlled by Hampton and Richmond or by this team (St Albans City). We weren’t the worst team.
“It’s not like we were torn apart today. We lost but again we had more of the chances, especially second half. We controlled most of the game other than we’re not being clinical enough and I don’t know where the goals are coming from at the moment. It didn’t help, Bradley (Goldberg) being injured early on but whatever we’re doing isn’t quite working at the moment.”
He continued “I think the squad’s decent enough. I think we might have to look up front. We’re not being clinical enough up front so possibly we’ve got to really give Josh a go or we’ve got to bring in another striker. We’re not far off to being a decent side but where we are, we don’t want to have a dogfight and a relegation battle and I can assure everybody that I will do, not what’s right for me, but what’s right for the club.”