Worthing boss: Beating Eastbourne Borough once doesn’t mean it will just happen again

A golden 15-minute spell mid-match brought goals from Joe Rye, Joe Felix and Ricky Aguiar that clinched a 3-0 win to put Worthing fourth in the National South table and three points behind second-placed Hampton. See pictures from Worthing v Borough by Mike Gunn and Lydia and Nick Redman here.

Hinshelwood was pleased with a professional display in front of a 1,921 crowd, three days after a 2-0 loss at Hemel in which he felt his team played well but were punished for not making first-half chances count.

Worthing now have a few days without a game – but visit Priory Lane for a quick return clash with struggling Eastbourne Borough on Monday (New Year’s Day).

The manager said: “I felt we were good value for the 3-0 scoreline against Eastbourne.

"At Hemel we played well first half but gifted them a goal and didn’t get going second half and it was disappointing to come away with nothing.

"But Boxing Day we were excellent. The stats show that when we put in the running and sprinting we win games; when we don’t, we lose. That’s what we must keep in our minds .”

Hinshelwood said fourth place after 24 games was a great position to be in but there was no room for levels to drop off – and anyone who thought another win over Borough on January 1 was a formality was wrong.

"They will make it harder – their defeat at our place is their motivating factor,” he said.

"The worry would be that anyone would turn up thinking ‘we’ll be okay because we beat them last time’. We must make sure our mindset is exactly right.”

Olllie Pearce and Kane Wills are nursing knocks; Nicky Wheeler (groin injury) and Joan Luque (trip home to Spain) should both be available after missing the Boxing Day game.

In the Isthmian south east division, goals by Charlie Pitcher, Lukas Franzen-Jones, Charlie Bennett and Harry Heath gave the Lancers a 4-2 win at Burgess Hill and they move up to eighth. But Nodirbek Bobomurodov’s goal couldn’t save Littlehampton from a 2-1 defeat at Horndean.