Welling boss Mark Goldberg will help pick the team for Saturday’s trip to Eastbourne – despite being on holiday.

Goldberg misses the Wings’ festive games in National League South as he is on a family holiday in Tenerife.

But assistant boss Hugo Langton revealed that Goldberg will be part of the discussions as they look to quickly rebuild their team as they travel to fellow strugglers Eastbourne just two days after a 3-0 Boxing Day derby defeat to Dartford.

“The three of us, as we always do, will speak,” said Langton, who took charge on Boxing Day alongside coach Osei Sankofa.

“We’ll reflect on the game, and feed back to Mark what has happened. We’ve got to take into account what Eastbourne are about, I watched them play at Wealdstone recently.

“As we always do before each game we’ll present the options and then we’ll decide what to do. There are some tired bodies in there and we’ve got some players that are fresh.

“It takes 72 hours – and that’s not my opinion – for a player to recover from a game of football. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the same for everybody, and it’s a crazy schedule.

“We’ve got players that are fresh and we’ve got to take that into consideration. We’ve just lost 3-0 at home in a local derby so perhaps we need a few changes.”

Langton revealed that Goldberg’s absence was already planned – even before he took the managerial role on again after parting company with now Dartford boss Steve King at the end of last season.

“We spoke to Mark before the game and we’ve been in close contact with him,” added Langton.

“He is still very influential in the selection of the team but during the game he had to leave it to me and Osei to try and do what we see is fit.

“Mark always goes away at Christmas and this year was no different. This was pre-booked way before he decided to (take over).

“When he was pondering what his next move was going to be in the summer he said he was going away at Christmas.

“Mark works incredibly hard for the football club and also in his own life, and he needs a break. Having him here is great but we’re in very close contact with him.”

That left Langton to carry out post-match media duties, and he appeared almost shell-shocked by the lack of passion shown by Welling in a dismal second half derby display.

“I get how the supporters feel because I feel the same,” said Langton.

“I’m hurt and people have every right to have a go. Osei and I are here so we have to take it on the chin. We need to be very different on Saturday and New Year’s Day (against Dartford).

“These are the sorts of games, whether you’re coaches, managers, supporters but mostly as players that you live for.

“We have to address it. You can coach all the tactics that you want, put on all the training sessions that you want but you have to be thinking correctly.

“We’ve challenged them, are they going to turn up and play like that again on Saturday? If you are, then we might as well sit on the beach at Eastbourne. Or are you going to turn up and do something about it?

“In the first half we were the better side overall. But the second goal has completely killed us. All three goals were avoidable and we’ve got to learn to do that side of the game a lot better. The mistakes we made were punished and the chances we had, we didn’t take.

“We need to learn that being one or two goals down isn’t the end of the world. We need to improve our way of thinking.”

• Report: Welling United 0 Dartford 3
• King: We're not ready for the play-offs

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