Trawler Boys sunk as Mackerel Men win the J.R.Hartley derby!

The Mackerel Men versus the Trawler Boys. A match which, perhaps, should be known as the J.R. Hartley derby? That’s a reference most appropriate for those of you over 40, which, incidentally, is almost as old as those of us who turned up today to watch this match would have to be to remember the last time that Worthing won a league game.

Not really.

It was actually only 214 days since Merstham arrived at Woodside Road and left without a point, but if you were a home supporter it undoubtedly felt like forty years, particularly because since March 28th Worthing have had enough nightmares to last a lifetime. For the benefit of those of you who haven’t followed the saga, firstly, joint-manager Jon Meeney resigned. Then, over the summer, FIFA decided that the 3G pitch at Woodside Road needed significant repair before it could be used and banished the first team to play elsewhere, either switching their matches to play away fixtures when they should have been at home or- when that couldn’t be done- moving them to Bognor, twenty miles down the road. Remaining manager Gary Elphick revamped his team and also lost a number of established first team players- including full back Will Hendon, captain Kane Wills and last season’s top scorer Lloyd Dawes, who all went to Eastbourne Borough- but his new squad didn’t manage to gel and defeat followed defeat. Eventually Elphick jumped just before he could be pushed, and owner George Dowell tempted Adam Hinshelwood back into the hot seat from Hastings United. Very little that could have gone wrong hadn’t gone wrong. The fact that George stayed positive throughout demonstrated quite conclusively that he should be a motivational life-coach in his spare time.

Not, of course, that Worthing give him much spare time.

But- just whisper it- maybe there were stirrings in BN14? There were signs that the sticky period might soon be remembered as the nightmare before Halloween, rather than the nightmare before Christmas. Worthing came into this match having finally returned home and having drawn two of their six league games since Hinshelwood jumped back into the dugout. Form had improved markedly, and earlier this week they had walloped neighbours Lancing 5-0 in the Sussex Senior Cup to record their first victory of the season. Yes, Lancing are a side two levels lower, but reports seemed to suggest that there was a bit of a swagger about Hinshelwood’s side for the first time this season- indeed, perhaps for the first time since February. Accordingly, there was a fair amount of positivity amongst the red ranks before today’s match- and as was quickly pointed out, this was effectively a cup game, so league points didn’t matter.

Gary, the secretary of the Worthing Supporters Association, typified that attitude. A Rebel/Mackerel Man for ten years, he began watching the side when his young daughter pestered him to go to football. “I was an Arsenal supporter, but that was too far to travel, Brighton didn’t have a ground of their own, and Woodside Road was local. I soon found that I was enjoying it far more than I enjoyed the professional game- that I just loved the whole experience. I’m a Non-League man now, through and through.” During the last decade he’s seen good times and bad at Woodside Road, and although this season hasn’t been so good he was quite clear that the green shoots of recovery were growing strongly. “We’ve been the best team in almost every game over the last few weeks. Last weekend we lost to Hendon, the league leaders, after outplaying them for seventy five minutes, and I’m sure we’ll stay up. I expect that it’ll take forty points, and I’ve no doubt that we’ll manage that.”

This season had hardly been plain sailing for Lowestoft Town, either. Five league victories contrasted with seven defeats, a 5-0 victory in Sussex three weeks ago at Burgess Hill Town had to be measured against a 6-2 defeat at Merstham last weekend, and the Trawler Boys seemed to be on an endless search for consistency. Brilliant one week, awful the next, they were the footballing equivalent of a packet of Revels- sometimes you’d get a nice toffee or a Malteser, on other occasions one of those awful coffee flavoured creams. Nobody wants that kind of jeopardy.

You’re shuddering at the thought of those coffee creams, aren’t you?

Trawler Boy Kevin, who explained that he followed the club home and away and had set off at a quarter past eight this morning- a “fairly short journey”- was quite clear at what was causing Lowestoft’s stuttering form. “Tactics.” Asked to expand, he had no hesitation. “We tend to play with wing backs. That means that they have to cover the entire pitch, end to end, and this ends up with them and the players who have to cover for them exhausted after an hour or so. Take a look at the number of goals we concede after the sixtieth minute, and it tells his own story.”

That said, it wasn’t tactics that were worrying him today, it was injuries. “We’ve nine players out. We lost two with illness this morning. I’d like us to be more consistent, but it’s difficult when you’ve so many missing. That said, I’m not unhappy- so long as we improve on last season’s eleventh place finish I’ll be content, we’re still rebuilding to some extent. And the squad is more than capable of going on a run- we might even be able to make a run towards the edge of the playoffs, and then who knows?”

Kevin predicted a 1-1 scoreline, and a replay on Tuesday night. Gary was confident of a 2-1 home win. Shortly after they had made these predictions the Lowestoft Town team sheet was issued, showing that the away side had only two fit substitutes. Worthing were unlikely to get a better chance of victory than they had today- and perhaps that could be the start of another run.

Last season the FA Trophy was a wonderful competition for the reds. Kempston Rovers and Cray Wanderers were put to the sword before National League South Hemel Hempstead Town came to call- then including the now Billericay Town hotshot Jake Robinson- and the Tudors were held to a draw before being shot down in the replay. National League Dagenham and Redbridge were next, and the Worthing Away Boys got on the District Line to watch their side dump the Daggers on their pointy behinds, before taking cup heroes Sutton United to a replay in the Second Round. The problem was- if there could be a problem- that this run brought striker Omar Bugiel to national prominence and hence to a move to Forest Green Rovers, created fixture congestion that the squad couldn’t cope with, and perhaps was the cause of the malaise that has afflicted them since. That might be a little simplistic, but the list of results since that game at Gander Green Lane doesn’t lie.

Worthing began the match with the confidence that a first victory brings, forming nice passing triangles in the middle of the park and occasionally looking to find a winger in space. Reece Hallard should have done better when found unmarked on the edge of the box with four minutes gone, his shot flying over the bar and into a neighbours garden, but all of the pressure- such as it was- was on the Lowestoft goal. Jaz Rance and captain Ben Pope looked to be forming a useful partnership, but there was little in the way of excitement until the sixteenth minute, when the same two players combined to put the home side ahead. It was Rance who did all the hard work, twisting and turning on the left hand side of the box before firing a cross-shot which took a deflection and found his strike partner in just the right place to fire home.

The rest of the first half? In reality, there was little to comment on. The referee seemed to be being rather fussy, blowing his whistle with great regularity when there seemed little to complain about, and Town winger Cruise Nyadzayo did his best to entertain the away contingent of the 520 crowd, but when you find yourself staring at the green bulk of the South Downs whilst play is going on and admiring the natural beauty you know that the match is anything but a classic.

The second half, in truth, was worse. The most excitement we had experienced as the game approached the final five minutes was the thought that Lowestoft substitute keeper Elvijs Putnins might have to come on as an outfield player, their one outfield substitute having already been used and Callum White struggling with a knock, but that moment passed to massed disappointment. Elvijs had changed his keepers outfit to one resembling the majority of his teammates, warmed up, and was primed for action, but all for naught.

The Worthing supporters behind the goal decided to try and lift the atmosphere, with lots of “Alley-Alley-Alley-oh”-ing and claiming that they were a “red and white army,” but the football was entirely flat. And then, as often happens in matches such as this, we moved towards the end and finally got some excitement.

In the eighty fifth minute Adam Smith curled a free kick for Town towards the back post, Rory McAuley lost his marker and powered a header goalwards, and home keeper Lucas Covolan had to save at full stretch. Next, Worthing substitute Harvey Sparks found Pope entirely unmarked on the edge of the box, and- just as the fourth official held up a board bearing the number six, the referee having decided to take no pity on the watching throng- the striker notched his fifth goal this week. Two minutes later and it was three, a cross from Sam Rents being nodded home by a criminally unmarked Kieron Pammant. “We’re winning again, we’re winning again,” sang the former Rebel Alliance in delight, and indeed their margin was unassailable. That said, it had already looked close to unassailable for almost seventy minutes.

The game petered to an end, the home fans celebrated, and a gaggle of small boys and footballs appeared on the 3G pitch, having been gathering by the perimeter gate for fifteen minutes prior to the whistle in eager anticipation. The home fans in the bar were glowing with contentment, and not for one moment was the poor game allowed to detract from the achievement. Two wins in a week- all they needed now was to show the same form in the league and all might yet be well.

The biggest disappointment of the day for the watching faithful was obvious, however. Elvijs had left the building without giving us a performance.