Referee’s penalty error costs Worthing FC – but so does their own poor defending

But the manager admitted their first-half show against Aveley was not good enough and they couldn’t blame only a decision not to award a penalty retake for their 2-1 loss.

Aveley led 2-0 early in the second half when Worthing won – and converted – a spot-kick. Players from both teams entered the area before it was struck but instead of ordering a retake, the referee gave Aveley a free-kick.

Worthing did later pull it back to 2-1 through Joan Luque but couldn’t find an equaliser and Hinshelwood said the penalty decision left him baffled. See Mike Gunn’s pictures from the match here.

But he hopes the Reds’ second half improvement against the National South new boys will put them in good heart for a hectic bank holiday weekend which will see them visit Dover on Saturday and host Weymouth on Monday.

"It was a big moment,” Hinshelwood said of the non-retaken penalty. “The ref got the rules wrong and if we’d got it to 2-1 then, with the crowd behind us, who knows what might have happened?

"But we can’t ignore the fact the first half was poor. When we look at the goals we conceded, we know we’ve got to be better. We were too casual with our passing – we were misplacing simple passes and were playing into their trap.”

See the penalty incident in the match highlights in the YouTube video embedded in this article.

Hinshelwood didn’t feel complacency was to blame for the poor first half – saying Aveley, who have also beaten Eastbourne Borough, had shown plenty of early-season signs they should not be taken lightly.

Attention now switches to the weekend double and Hinshelwood is looking to bring in a striker on loan, with Greg Luer having suffered a broken toe and Jake Robinson still nursing a hamstring tweak.

"We’ve got a good squad and players like Kane Wills and Cam Tutt coming back from injury but another one up front may be what we need,” he said.

"They’ll both be difficult games but it’s been a good start for us overall and we’re looking forward to them. We’ll need to rotate the squad a little with two games in three days.”