Hinshelwood wants 'Trophy' fever to grip Worthing

Worthing boss Adam Hinshelwood wants the town to be gripped by cup fever again as he targets a long run in this season's FA Trophy.
Adam Hinshelwood. Picture by Stephen GoodgerAdam Hinshelwood. Picture by Stephen Goodger
Adam Hinshelwood. Picture by Stephen Goodger

Worthing, flying high in the Bostik League Premier Division this season, reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup this season and Hinshelwood wants to go as far as possible in the FA Trophy as well.

Chesham United are the visitors to Woodside Road in the second qualifying round on Saturday (3pm) and Hinshelwood expects a tough fixture. Chesham are bottom of the Evo-Stik South Premier Division South table but are unbeaten in six games and progressed past Worthing’s divisional rivals Haringey in the last round.

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The winners of the tie will receive £4,000 prize money and Hinshelwood said: “The final of the competition is at Wembley and it’s an opportunity for us to pit ourselves against teams of the kind of calibre we want to be competing against in the forseeable future.

“It’s a competition we want to do well in and we want to give the supporters and ourselves the same feeling we had a little bit with the FA Cup.

“I’d be going into the coffee shop and everyone around the town would ask when the cup game is and we want to generate that atmosphere around the town again.

“This isn’t a cup competition you want to take lightly and I went to watch Omar Bugiel play for Bromley in the final last year.

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“But we can’t look any further than Saturday’s game, it’s going to be tough. Haringey were a real tough side when we went there and Chesham beat them, so we’re going to have to be at our best to progress in the competition.”

Worthing average crowds of 1,004 in home league matches this season and despite losing only one of their eight matches in all competitons at Woodside Road, Hinshelwood still wants performances to improve.

He praised the support in Saturday’s 3-2 win over Folkestone and said: “It’s unreal, it really is fantastic.

“The second half on Saturday and the noise coming from the Shed End behind the goal was phenomenal. It really does spur us on.

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“We’re hopeful for another big crowd on Saturday and although we’ve only lost once at home this season, we still want to improve our performances.”

Reece Meekums, who scored the winner against Folkestone on Saturday after returning to Worthing on loan from Bromley, and Newton, on loan from Welling, are both unavailable for Saturday’s FA Trophy tie owing to the loan arrangements with their parent clubs.

Alfie Young, Aarran Racine, Lucas Covolan and Ollie Pearce are all set to miss Saturday’s game through injury but Hinshelwood hopes defender Joel Colbran will be fit to return.

Worthing ask for fans to park in Worthing High School’s car park for home games, rather than around the ground.

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Director Ian Hart said: “The last thing we want to do is upset local residents. With large crowds coming to Woodside Road, we ask if people can be considerate and park in the school, which is just a five-minute walk away.

“The car park won’t be locked until the last car has gone.”