From 5-1 win to 6-0 defeat – joy and agony of a week of Worthing FC

On Saturday they recorded their best result of the season – a 5-1 National South win away to third-placed Havant. Three days later they chalked up their worst – a 6-0 home defeat to leaders Ebbsfleet.

Havant v Worthing in 34 pictures.

Hinshelwood was naturally delighted by the victory at Havant, set up by Callum Kealy’s hat-trick and rounded off by Mo Dabre’s late double.

But he said the Ebbsfleet defeat was a harsh lesson that showed just how much the team still had to learn about life at step two of the non-league pyramid.

"I wouldn’t necessarily say Havant was our best performance of the season,” he said of the weekend’s win. “Our performance levels have been good but at Havant we were clinical.

Worthing v Ebbsfleet in 26 pictures.

"They put us under pressure early on and we rode our luck at times but in Callum we have a striker in great form... and it all came together.”

Hinshelwood rejected suggestions the result led to any complacency in the ranks for the visit of Ebbsfleet, a game which was all over at 4-0 by half-time.

"Ebbsfleet are a very good team but we just didn’t turn up,” he said.

"I didn’t see our game plan being implemented and for their first two goals, we left players with tap-ins from six yards. We might need to start looking at marking people in the box!

"The basics were not there and they have to be at this level. It wasn’t complacency. We had players frightened to make mistakes, not wanting to put themselves out there.

"Our speed of thought – our anticipation – needs to be better.

"You don’t forget 6-0 home defeats quickly, I know that from a previous one we had at Worthing, but we now have to show what we’ve learned from it.”

They’ll lick their wounds and head into another two-game week – visiting mid-table Dover on Saturday then hosting bottom side Weymouth on Tuesday.

Hinshelwood said he’d ponder changing Tuesday’s line-up after seeing how the players responded at training tonight.