CITY’S new captain Ben Martin believes the club has the players, managers and mentallity to succeed in the Calor Southern League this season.

The fomer Welling player, one of City’s summer signing, has earned rave reviews during the pre-season, leading to him being named captain by joint managers James Gray and Graham Golds.

A sending off at the end of last season means Martin will miss the Poole game on Saturday, which he said he is “gutted” about, but he is excited to lead the team out against Hungerford.

“It’s great to be named captain, but I believe there should be 11 captains on the field,” he told the Herts Ad.

“I’ve always been in and around the role as captain and vice-captain so got to use my experience and hopefully it rubs off on the team.”

Martin admitted it was his history and love of the club that brought him back for his second stint. And now he is looking to push the club into higher divisions.

After the Hemel Hempstead Town game he said: “I’m gutted to be missing the Poole game but we have a big enough squad and if we get a win, or even a result, I won’t expect to come straight back in.

“Hopefully, I lead the lads out against Hungerford and we push on from there.”

He added: “We have the squad to succeed; 100 per cent. We’re giving sloppy goals away and not starting halves as well as we should but we’ve come back against biggest league rivals today.

“We’ve had good and bad in pre-season, but that’s what its for. We have 23 lads so we can’t expect every minute to go our way. It’s up the 11 that play on the day to get the job done.”

James Gray was full of compliments for his new skipper after City’s 3-2 Herts Charity Cup win at Hemel Hempstead Town on Saturday.

He said: “Ben is going to be a monster for us. He’s everything we were lacking last year.”