Four goals and a win - that'll do nicely in first friendly for Worthing boss

The Worthing boss used a mixture of familiar first-team faces, young players and trialists as they beat Chichester City 4-2 in the Dave Kew Memorial Cup semi-final at Pagham on a blistering-hot Saturday afternoon.

Jesse Starkey and Marvin Armstrong marked the first game of 2020-21 with a goal apiece and there were two goals from an unnamed trialist.

Hinshelwood was happy with the workout and is looking forward to another test against a side from the Isthmian division below Worthing this Saturday when they take on Whitehawk at St Francis Rangers.

Chichester City 2 Worthing 4 - match report

With games to come after that at Littlehampton Town and Haywards Heath, then the Dave Kew final against Pagham, Hinshelwood is confident the schedule for the next few weeks will enable his squad to step up their preparations for the new Isthmian premier campaign nicely.

“It was a good workout against Chichester,” said Hinshelwood. “It was a last-minute game for us and that meant there were some players not available, as we’d planned to do morning training that day.

“But that gave me a chance to field some first-team players, some of our youngsters and some trialists.

“I wouldn’t read too much into the first game but we played well and there were some good performances.

“One or two trialists did enough to warrant a further chance.

“If there was a disappointment it was that we missed a lot of chances, but that’s perhaps to be expected.

“We’d only had two proper pre-season sessions before this first game, which isn’t really enough. But as the weeks pass it’ll be good to get more sessions and games behind us.”

Hinshelwood is content with how the size and quality of the squad is coming together but said there could be news about one or two new faces – including a goalkeeper – within the next week.