Hinshelwood praises Worthing response

Reece Hallard’s early effort was cancelled out by Matt Blake’s strike as Worthing were held to a 1-1 Bostik League Premier Division home draw by play-off hopefuls Leiston.

It was a point and performance Worthing boss Hinshelwood was satisfied with, particularly after their FA Trophy exit at division-lower Thame United last time out.

Hinshelwood had labelled that loss ‘embarrassing’, so was pleased his side took something against Leiston.

It’s a point that sees basement boys Worthing close the gap further to them and Bostik League Premier Division safety.

Harlow Town and Needham Market - the two teams directly above them both lost - to leave Worthing five points from safety.

The only downside to what was an otherwise positive afternoon was the fact Worthing failed to capitalise on their early momentum, according to Hinshelwood.

He said: “This was a much better performance than the one we put in at Thame United last week. Everything we’ve done so well in my time here was missing from that display but we were back at it against Leiston.

“We could and should have been more than 1-0 ahead given the start we had. I think if we’d got a second they would have been left with an awful lot to do.

“Given the distance they’d travelled down to come and play, we probably would have gone on to win.

“They are a good team and although they are not on the best run at the minute, it was always going to be a tough battle.

“I was pleased with how we performed, it takes us up to double figures in terms of league points, so there are a number of positives.”

Worthing made a flying start as Kieron Pamment struck the bar and Ben Pope flashed an effort past a post before Hallard’s 16th-minute opener.

Joel Colbran’s drive deflected into the path of Hallard, who thundered home.

Leiston grew as the half went on and levelled through Blake nine minutes prior to the interval. Christy Finch sent Blake racing away and he made no mistake slotting past Lucas Covolan.

Jazz Rance’s fierce drive was straight at the Leiston goalkeeper ten minutes after the restart, which was as good as it got for Worthing in the second half.

Leiston ended much the stronger, with Covolan coming to the home side’s rescue - ensuring they picked up a point.

The Brazilian goalkeeper made two point-blank stops in quick succession 20 minutes from time, before denying Blake one-on-one after 88 minutes as it finished 1-1.

Worthing host Harrow Borough on Saturday, then travel to Kingstonian for their rearranged league clash on Wednesday.

WORTHING: Covolan; Colbran, Young, Rents; Meekums, Budd, Hallard, Schneider; Rance, Pamment; Pope. Subs: Wild (Pope, 70), Sparks (Schneider, 70), Parsons (Rance, 81), Watson, O’Sullivan.