Humiliated and angry – but Worthing must use 7-2 defeat to spark upbeat end to season

Worthing’s aggregrate score over two clashes with the runaway National South leaders is 13-2 – after a 6-0 defeat at home earlier in the season.

Hinshelwood said the first half didn’t feel like a game that would end 7-2, but a combination of their failure to take chances and a tendency to make mistakes at the back cost them a heavy loss.

But he said the trick now – for him and the players – was to use the hurt as motivation for a season’s end in which they have every chance of reaching the play-offs in their first National League season, and have a Sussex Senior Cup semi-final to play.

Slough v Worthing in pictures.

Ebbsfleet v Worthing in pictures.

The loss at Ebbsfleet followed Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Slough, where the Rebels couldn’t force a win despite facing only nine men for 50 minutes.

Hinshelwood said: “Ebbsfleet are an unbelievable team. They’ll go up and I think they’ll be a force in the National premier.

"But in the first half we competed really well and had chances.. It sounds stupid but it actually could have been 3-3 at half-time. But going 3-1 down just before the break was a big setback.

"Then early in the second half Ollie Pearce missed the sort of chance he normally puts away then James Beresford made an error and they were 4-1 up. We gifted them chances and they are ruthless. We felt humiliated, angry and disappointed at the end.

"They are at the level we must aspire to and if we don’t learn from playing teams like this, we won’t progress.”

Hinshelwood was disappointed with the draw at Slough, where the Rebels could not add to a superb Beresford strike against nine men. Now he is ralliyng his squad to get back to winning ways when Bath City visit Woodside Road on Saturday.

"We have to remember we’ve had a good season – it could still end up the best the club has ever had. We can get into the play-offs and have a chance in the county cup. But it will only end well if we use the result at Ebbsfleet to spur us on.”