Ryan Maxwell has been announced as the new Welling United manager, along with his assistant Billy McMahon. 

On Friday afternoon, Welling’s CEO Paul Barnes confirmed that the process of finding a permanent manager had been completed but that there were formalities to be completed and Saturday’s game against Cray Wanderers would be the last for interim manager Rod Stringer and his coaching staff.

While that game was going on, Maxwell and McMahon were taking Sittingbourne for the last time in their FA Trophy match at Ebbsfleet United which ended in a heartbreaking defeat in a penalty shoot-out.

It will not be Maxwell’s first time at Park View Road as he had a very brief spell as a player for Welling in the 2007/08 season. He was a youth player at Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Reading before starting his senior football career at Grays Athletic.

He represented clubs in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland before becoming player coach at Waltham Forest. He went from them to Ware but returned to the club, renamed as Walthamstow as manager while still registered as a player.

After his contract ended there he was appointed at Braintree Town where a brilliant run saved them from relegation from the National League South. He stayed there for eighteen months before choosing to leave when his contract expired in May 2022.

In January 2023 he was appointed as manager of Sittingbourne and saved them from the drop from the Isthmian League South East. 

Last season, his Brickies team finished as runners-up with one hundred and one points before missing out on promotion when losing to Burgess Hill Town. However, when the opportunity came to take the reins at Welling, he felt ready for the fresh challenge. He said: “This is the fourth time I’ve taken over at a club in this scenario so I know the steps.”

Having played under many managers in his playing career in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, subconsciously, he was always looking at a future in management.

“I was captain for a lot of clubs, therefore I had to deal with the manager quite a lot so a lot of times I was consulted with a lot of things and by my late twenties / early thirties, I certainly had one eye on it. I think I was player/coach at thirty. I was player/manager, coach at Walthamstow.”