Welling boss Steve King masterminded their win over leaders Torquay on Saturday – and then put all the praise on his players.

King got his tactics spot-on against the National League South frontrunners at Park View Road to deservedly win 2-0.

But the Wings boss was quick to deflect all the glory to his threadbare squad, which has been hit hard by budget cuts in recent weeks.

“We’ve got heart and spirit in there,” said King. “I know what you get when you work with winners, they all buy into what you are.

“We needed to stand up and be counted and we did.

“I thought we were excellent and I’m so pleased, I’m chuffed for the players. Take me out of it and put all the praise on them.

“It was an unbelievable performance. They gave me everything and thoroughly deserved to win the game.

“We’ve played with 13 or 14 players for the last few weeks. Those same players were out there again giving everything.

“It’s the same players doing it again and again, I don’t know how they keep doing it – they deserve the win.”

King’s gameplan worked as the Wings went more direct in a bid to utilise the presence of Danny Mills and the pace of Jack Barham.

“We had a game plan, we knew where we could hurt them,” said King.

“We felt we could get in behind the two centre-halves with how quick Jack is. Everything we felt that we could do, we did.

“We probably could have scored a couple more but we were outstanding.

“On the day they couldn’t handle Millsy – he won every single header. If you’ve got that then you have to use it.

“I took a bit from when I watched them at Dartford, we watched them again on Tuesday and we felt anything in behind would cause them problems.”

• Read the match report from Welling's 2-0 win over Torquay here

The challenge now for King is how to maintain this form with 15 league matches still to play.

The Wings are up to fifth – just seven points away from top spot – with many of the leading teams still to visit Park View Road.

King, however, believes Torquay and Woking will finish in the top two, leaving everyone else eyeing third spot to gain home advantage in the play-offs.

“First and second has gone in my opinion and third place is the one everyone’s trying to get,” said the Wings boss.

“You can’t look at a fixture and say we’ll beat them, it doesn’t happen.

“Every game is relentless. To be doing what we are with such small numbers is incredible.

“The problem is they are all cup finals. Woking here is a cup final, Bath here is a cup final, Chelmsford here is a cup final, St Albans here is a cup final.

“Then we’ve got five teams away from home who are all fighting to stay in the division – it’s 10-plus cup finals.

“It’s not a cliché, they’re all fighting to stay in the division and the others are all looking to get that third place because of home advantage.”

King lost defender Thierry Audel to injury early on against Torquay while Anthony Acheampong played through the pain barrier with an ankle problem.

“We’re down to the bare bones,” added King. “I’m hoping we can get a centre-halve in, I’ve got one in mind that I know would like to come here. We need reinforcements, you can see that.

“We’d like to have a couple more in because we’re at the business end. I get (why we can’t) but it’s tough.

“To keep giving the performance like they did, I can only pat them on the back for that.”