WELLING United assistant manager Barry Ashby feels the Wings’ standing in football has risen ahead of his side’s season opener against recently relegated Bath City.

The Park View Road side qualified for the play-offs last year where they suffered heartbreak in a 1-0 loss to Dartford in the final.

In the past, the club’s poor financial situation has been well-documented, meaning Welling’s achievements have often been viewed by others as punching above their weight.

However, over the summer manager Jamie Day has managed to keep a large proportion of the squad together, while also signing players who have chosen the Wings over other clubs.

And Ashby is confident this shows the club’s reputation is growing fast.

“Our standing has gone up”, he said.

“It used to be ‘Look at little Welling’, but not anymore.

“Teams are starting to view us as a good scalp to get, meaning there’s no easy games, but players want to sign for us, so it’s a positive and a negative.

“Players have looked at what other players have done at the club – developed and gone up into higher leagues – and decided they want to be a part of it.

“It’s down to the players, though. They need to commit in order to progress.

“We’re lucky, really. Players don’t miss training and are committed, which is not something you find at every club in this league.”

Despite a potentially difficult start to the season that also includes Chelmsford City away on Monday night, Ashby says he is excited at the propsect of the upcoming campaign.

He said: “We’re looking forward to the season, you shouldn’t be in this business if you’re not!

“It’s a tough start but I think it’s a good start, too.

“In the past couple of seasons, the boys have performed well against big teams and I’m of the mind players raise their performances for big matches.

“The first five or six games are tough, especially as we’ll be playing on a Saturday and a Monday this week.

“It isn’t easy to go from pre-season into that and it risks injuries.

“As Jamie Day has said, some teams have got quite large budgets this season in comparison to us but we’re pretty much delighted with the way pre-season has gone.

“We’ve had good results and stayed injury free.

“Players have now got minutes under their belts.”

Meanwhile, Ashby declined to comment on the fact Thamesmead Town have announced the signings of Ryan Flack and Enoch Adjei from the Wings.

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