First half goals from Brendan Sarprong-Wiredu and Abraham Odou proved sufficient for Charlton Athletic to beat Welling United but the hosts manager Mark Goldberg was not downbeat.

There are four leagues difference between the two teams but it rarely showed. “We wanted to be competitive at least.” said Goldberg. “It’s all about what you learn about your players, where we are, how they are fitting into the way that we want to play, how they are in terms of levels of fitness.

“All in all, I would have taken a two-nil defeat against a Championship side while we are learning what we are learning, but most of all, what I’m really pleased about is that we contained them. They didn’t really trouble us too much.”

He continued “We forced them to play out wide. They did catch us with the long switch early on. I think there was a mix up between Joe (Anderson) and Nathan Green. They kind of put their hands up and Joe has ended up flat footed but their player took it really well. He still had a lot to do and he finished really well. That was a class goal.

“I was so disappointed at half time because I said to the boys if we hadn’t given away the second goal, and Luke (Rooney) knows you don’t hold on to the ball in the middle of the park that long when you’ve got a player up your back and we didn’t have to give that way. It was a soft goal to give away.

“At one-nil, it didn’t look like a Championship side against a National League South side so we told them that at half time. ‘Let’s try and impose ourselves and try and believe in ourselves a little bit more in the second half’ and in all fairness, even with all the changes, I was so pleased at how the players are adapting to the way that we want to play.

“We didn’t have clear cut chances but we caused them a few problems and did they cause us a lot of problems in the second half? Not really. All in all it was a really good display from our side for this stage of the season.”

However, he wanted to express caution “I don’t want to get carried away. It’s very early doors.” said Goldberg “But everyone knows how we want them to play. We’re playing a certain shape and I’m just so pleased with the way they are adapting and they are really finding it hard to break us down. If a Championship side doesn’t break you down that easily, you’ve got to be reasonably confident that we can contain sides in the National League.”

One problem that Welling encountered was the fact that they lost striker Adam Coombes in the early stages. However, Goldberg was able to confirm that it was nothing serious. “It’s not a major injury.” he said. “He was sensible enough. He was very tight and he knew that if he carried on it could go to six weeks (out) when maybe it’s just a few days. We don’t have to be overly concerned.

“We don’t have a lot of options. The reality is that we are probably looking for another striker. When Adam’s not available we don’t really have that type of target man and with the style of play we play, we do need a target man. I’m biding my time for the right person. I might look for a loan player. Our budget’s really tight so I’m going to have to call in some favours from some managers in the football league, I think.”

Sanchez Ming was also withdrawn earlier than planned through injury. “It was precautionary. He wanted to carry on but in all fairness he took a knock very early on. It was a bit of a hospital ball back to him but he is competitive. I’m really pleased with Sanchez. All of their attitudes have been really first class.”

Goldberg also explained the absence of Archie Johnson. “Archie was on holiday. We would have liked Archie to come on and give Joe (Anderson) some breathing space. There was nothing underlying there. I think that he is back for the next game.”

Whilst Johnson is due to return, there will be other absentees next weekend. “We’ve got Glebe on Thursday.” said Goldberg. “Then, next Saturday we’re going to struggle. “We’ve got two centre halves who’ve booked the weekend off which means we’ve only got one centre half for next week’s game against Dover.

“It gives me a chance to have a look at a couple of new players because if we get injuries to either of our three centre halves we’re going to struggle. Last year we had five or six centre halves and this year, with the budget that we’ve got, I’ve got to be really careful.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.