It was never going to be easy with a brand new team, says Welling United assistant manager Hugo Langton

WELLING UNITED assistant manager Hugo Langton says it was never going to be easy this season.

The Wings are in 11^th place in the Vanarama National League South table with 14 points from 11 games but they suffered a hurtful 2-1 home defeat to Bostik North second-placed side Haringey Borough in The FA Cup Second Qualifying Round last weekend.

Jamie Coyle made four changes, himself included, and watched on as his side put in a spirited performance to lose 1-0 at home to a strong Charlton Athletic side in the Kent Reliance Senior Cup Second Round last night.

Frenchman, central defender, Mouhamadou-Naby Sarr, 24, scored a last-gasp winner for Jason Euell’s side to send the Addicks through to the Quarter-Finals.

Welling United travel to seventh-placed Havant & Waterlooville in the Vanarama National League South on Saturday afternoon.

“It was never going to be easy because coming to a club where there’s only Sean Francis left here from last year.  Pierre-Joseph Dubois, whose been injured for six weeks now, other than that it’s a complete rebuild, a brand new team,” said Langton.

“You don’t have a lot of contact time with the players. It’s difficult to perform miracles perhaps that sometimes people want and expect because on paper we’re decent.

“I’ll be surprised if Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp (the current managers of Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool), could do a lot better with the limited contact time we have them.

“People may laugh at that comment because they’re supposed to be world-class coaches but when you can’t spend the time you want to spend with players because that’s the way the season’s being dictated, it’s tough.

“But to be fair to the players we’ve made positive steps.  We’ve had a big backward step last Saturday in The FA Cup and that really, really hurt us, all of us, but last night it was a positive step forward, result aside.”

Only 154 fans bothered to watch last night’s Kent Reliance Senior Cup tie against Charlton Athletic -  Welling United’s smallest crowd for many a year – and Langton appreciates his side must bounce back in a League game.

“I’m hoping last night will give us a shot in the arm.  We can compete, we can defend, we can believe in ourselves and I think at times we caused them problems going forward,” he said.

“Had we turned up last night and rolled over and been in awe of a talented Charlton team and you get smashed that doesn’t help either.

“Last night has helped us regain some confidence and some belief and sometimes you’ve got to roll your sleeves up and when we go to Havant on Saturday, we’re going to have to roll our sleeves up.  It’s the same as a lot of games away from home, a lot of the time you accept, you know Charlton will have a lot of possession than you.  Possession will be more even in our division and that was really, really important for us.

“I don’t care what people say about County Cups. I love County Cups and it was great to be able to give players minutes and there’s so many positives and I’m so glad for the players and also for Jamie Coyle, Jack Parkinson and myself.

“It’s nice to be able to get back in the car and go home feeling more positive. It wasn’t pleasant last year when I was at Eastbourne Borough. We went to Braintree in The FA Cup First Round and got absolutely stuffed 7-0, it was men against boys.

“It was horrible but a few days later we played in the County Cup, we played Crawley Down Gatwick and we put nine past them so we were able to regain our mojo.”

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Havant & Waterlooville  v  Welling United
Vanarama National League South
Saturday 23^rd September 2017
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Westleigh Park, Martin Road, Havant, Hampshire PO9 5TH