New Welling United manager, Steve King, took a number of positives from his first game as manager of the club.

On an extremely warm and humid afternoon, and in front of a decent crowd, his team put in a very good performance against Division One, Charlton Athletic, especially in the first half.

Although the inaugural Eric Brackstone Trophy was at stake, King was not too disappointed with the result. “For me it was all about the workout really, seeing partnerships form on the pitch and I think we gave a good account of ourselves.”

Whilst Charlton changed their entire team at the interval, King chose not to make any changes until an hour had passed. He explained “We are monitoring everything we do in pre-season. It will all add up at the end that everyone’s had the same amount of time.”

He admitted that it wasn’t easy in the heat. He said “That’s a full time team (Charlton) that train every day. We’re part time. We’ve had three training sessions so it was always going to be tough in the conditions.”

Lyle Taylor scored Charlton’s winning goal when finishing from close range after a free kick hit the wall and came back for him to scramble home from three yards out. King did not feel that it should have stood saying “He was offside. He started offside and he finished the goal as well offside. I was disappointed from that. I thought there were a few decisions, probably both ways, but that’s gone now.

“We’ll concentrate on the positives. We could have scored at the end there. Brad (Bradley Goldberg) had a great chance to score to make it two-two but it was a good workout and I’m glad that we got something out of the game because I know that they got something out of the game because they told us.”

Explaining why Goldberg played the full ninety minutes (the only player to do so), King explained “We’re a little bit light up top at the moment. That’s one department that we’re still looking to strengthen.”

However the squad has been strengthened with new previously unannounced players. “Thierry Audel has signed, centre half. Very, very experienced, he played today. Arnaud Mendes has signed as well, he played today and we have agreed with David Ijaha as well.” Ijaha wore the armband for the match but who will be captain at the start of the season has not yet been decided.

King also confirmed his management team. “Craig (Bellgrave)’s worked with me at nearly every club apart from Macclesfield. Osei (Sankofa) used to play for me and he’s gone away and is a very experienced coach now. He is doing his A license now and we know how each other work.

“Larry (Raji) the goalkeeping coach was with Arsenal ladies in the Champions League and has been with me at three other clubs.”

There is no midweek game so the team will have two training sessions ahead of next Saturday’s home game against Watford’s under 23 squad.