Three points won against Gloucester City took Welling United to the top of the Vanarama National League South.

Although happy with the three points, Welling manager Steve King feels that there is plenty of room for improvement. “Delighted for the win.” he said “I think that we were comfortable at times. I think that when we’ve given that goal (away) at the end it was panic stations a little bit for ten minutes and I didn’t like that.

“I think we should be controlling and seeing out the game in a little bit more professional manner, We have done that before when we’ve gone two nil up and seen games out professionally but I don’t think that was one of them.”

A double substitution had been made by King just before Gloucester scored the goal that got them back in the game but the Wings boss didn’t feel that it had a bearing on the difficult late spell. King said “I think we needed to make the changes, give people legs.

“We’ve got a game in forty eight hours time so you were just taking a forward off and taking a winger off and changing it like for like. We didn’t change the shape. They all knew what their jobs were. I just think a little bit of complacency there. It was poor defending and a poor way that we’ve conceded that goal.

However, he was delighted with some of his team’s attacking play. “That’s the difference.” he said “We’ve got players in there that can finish. The finishes on all three of the goals were different class and the moves on all of them was fantastic.”

He continued “I know their manager. He’s come in and he’s changed a few things. He’s brought four or five new players in this week and they had a right go at Bromley last week, they had a right go at Billericay the week before so I knew that they were going to be young, bright, energetic, and they were.

“We just had to be professional in our performance but I think that our finishing was what was in a different gear, a different class for me.”

Nassim L’Ghoul has been terrifying opposing defences in recent weeks without a positive end result but that changed against Gloucester. King explained “We’ve spoken to Naz in the week and we’ve said that for all of the brilliance that he has, he is slowly getting better and better and I think that the fans can see that.

“He needs to bring more creativity as in making a goal or scoring a goal and today he set Coombsy (Adam Coombes) up brilliantly with one cross that came in and there was a brilliant save by the keeper then he scored a fantastic goal. That’s what we’re saying. As wide men, Brendan scores seven goals from a wide area and we’re just trying to say to him you have all the ability in the world but what is the end product. Today he gave us that.”

Matt Paterson marked his Welling debut with a goal and an assist. King said “ (His goal was) thoroughly deserved. He had a hand in the first goal when we thought he might have shot but he’s clipped it back in then he’s got on the end of that one with a brilliant finish, a striker’s finish, and he’s put it in the corner.”

Montel Agyemang also came in as cover in midfield. “Montel has played at this level and scored goals at this level last year.” said King. “He made a decision this year to try and get a pro contract somewhere.

“He played for Q.P.R. here (in a pre-season friendly). He did alright. They never took him. He had trials at QPR and at Nottingham Forest and at the moment he’s at Bournemouth. It’s only a short term fix. He’s chasing a pro contract somewhere so we don’t know what’s going to happen but if that pro contract doesn’t happen, there’s a discussion to be had with us.”

Another new player added to the squad is Kyjuon Marsh-Brown. “I know Browny very well.” said King.”I had him last year. He’s a fantastic talent. He got into the England Non League team and played against Ireland most recently and he’s playing at a level that he should be playing higher. We spoke to Whitehawk and asked if there was a possibility that we could take him and we’ve taken him on loan now and we’ll see what happens from here.”

Adam Coombes played the last game of his loan spell from Billericay Town and King confirmed that there have been no discussions about an extension. “We don’t know yet.” said King. “We haven’t spoken to Billericay. We just thought we’d get today out of the way.”

“We haven’t even spoken to Adam so we don’t know where we are yet. I need to sit with Mark to tidy up where we are with everything, who’s staying and who’s going, who we’re loaning out.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.