A CURLED effort from Matthew Williams earned Wellington an opening day victory against surprise outfit Bourton Rovers.

Facing a strong and organised outfit with a good goalkeeper Williams' 59th minute effort was the difference between the sides.

Wellington manager Gary Stevens was pleased with the result but thought his side could have scored more.

"We could've been better as we had a lot of possession of the ball," he said.

"They (Bourton Rovers) were a very well organised and big side who were physical in all areas of the pitch so all credit to them.

"Their goalkeeper made a couple of big saves and we struggled to score.

"If we had scored early in the match we may have done a lot better.

"It was a bit disappointing that we didn't score more but we didn't concede and the only chance they had came from a couple of mistakes we had which meant we were caught on the break a couple of times.

"Matthew Apperley only had one save to make which was a shot hit straight."

Their Cotswold-based visitors were a surprise package and also new to the Hellenic League Division One West after being promoted from the Hellenic Division Two West last season.

Stevens was impressed by the organisation of the visitors.

He added: "They came to us after winning promotion from their league last season so came on a high and had obviously worked very hard on their structure which did work for them.

"They weren't a bad side and I was quite impressed with them so I was well pleased to get a 1-0 result with a clean sheet and three points.

"They will surprise a few teams I think. The only comparison we had was Cheltenham Saracens who we played in a pre-season game and Bourton were certainly bigger and probably better."

Stevens was impressed with Williams' winning goal which was the only shot to beat the visiting goalkeeper.

He added: "It was an excellent finish from Matt, he cut inside two players outside the box and curled his shot in.

"Their goalkeeper was a big lad and probably six foot six and athletic so he was hard to beat."

Wellington are without a game this weekend due to FA Cup matches before hosting Newent the following Tuesday night (August 13).

Stevens hopes that he will be faced by more selection problems in the coming months after a positive opening day.

He added: "All the players did very well, there was no outstanding performances but also no poor performances either.

"The biggest challenge of the day for me was picking a side out of the squad we had.

"We left some very good players sitting on the bench and if we can keep the squad together I think we should do well."