Welling United enjoyed winning three points against ten men Hemel Hempstead Town to move them up into mid-table.

After the game, Mark Goldberg felt that despite Hemel having a man sent off, he would have expected his team to win anyway. He said.“His (Sam Ashford’s) studs were up. I don’t think that the ref had a choice but to give a red card. You didn’t hear their management complaining anyway.

“Yeah, it helped us but I thought we were playing O.K. We were in control or let’s say we had our opportunities to pop it and pass it with eleven against eleven. I didn’t feel that we needed to be a man up to win today but at the same time we still had to be professional. We got the job done.”

Winning was important with the Wings hovering above the relegation zone. “Obviously, I’m delighted that we got the win.” he said. “It was another of those must win games. I thought we had turned a little bit of a corner having gone four unbeaten. Then to lose last week was a bitter blow for us although I had my excuses in terms of certain players weren’t fully fit.

“We managed to get the majority of them back today but we weren’t able to get Rob Swaine fit which was a bit of a disappointment. It was a bit of a grind at times, even with a man up, but it was all in all a professional display, I believe, from the boys.”

There was no Theo Widdrington in the squad and Goldberg explained “He got an injury in training at Bristol Rovers during the week so he wasn’t available today.”

One of Welling’s problems this season has been a lack of goals from set-pieces so Goldberg was delighted that his team scored both of their goals from dead ball situations. “It’s about time.” he said. “Cookie (Anthony Cook) had a corner earlier that I don’t know how we didn’t score. Jay Rich didn’t quite get his head to it. I think that we were arriving too early but Moses (Emmanuel) was there at the far stick for the goal.”

However, although both goals came from set plays, Goldberg was keen to say that there was more to their game than that. “There was some good passing between Brad (Goldberg) and Coombsie (Adam Coombes) and Moses and Cookie and Montel (Agyemang).” he said.

“There was some good football but we didn’t really punish them with it but it was coming. We had to make those changes as we have a lot of games coming up and don’t need any more injuries.

“Our front two had to come off because I had to protect them injury wise. Before that we were pretty much bossing the game but Nathan (Green) came on and he worked hard and he got us that goal. He’s an unorthodox centre forward

“He has done it at Dulwich a couple of times. He hasn’t done it for us but it’s something we’ve thought about. That physical presence up front is necessary and we haven’t done it right so far this season. We’re hopeful that we’ve got at least one new addition next week who is a natural number nine who’s got power and strength.”

Defensively, Welling looked solid despite the absence of Swaine. “I’m delighted with a clean sheet, even against ten men as so often it can go the other way.” said Goldberg. “You’ve still got to be professional and you’ve got to win the game.

“I must admit there were a couple of times that we were in danger of conceding. The first one when Chiori (Johnson) made a fantastic defensive run back and slide in preventing their player from getting a clean shot. Then right at the end there, I know we were two up, it would have been very disappointing to concede but he didn’t get a clean shot and it went across the keeper and wide.

“He rolled us in the middle of the park and that’s a disappointment but we got away with that one. Other than that they didn’t really trouble us too much.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.