Worthing boss 'disappointed' but can't fault endeavour in Potters Bar draw

Marvin Morgan finished off a terrific run from inside his own half to put the Scholars in front just after the half-hour mark.

Ollie Pearce found an equaliser in the 70th minute to set up an exciting finale but the Isthmian Premier Division leaders couldn’t force a second and settled for a point.

With Folkestone Invicta’s trip to Cheshunt postponed, the point helps the Reds move seven points clear at the top.

Hinshelwood admitted he was ‘disappointed’ to be held by the 12th-place side.

He said: “We were disappointed to concede the first goal.

"The first goal’s massive in these types of games where teams come and play five at the back and set up to make it difficult.

“It was always going to be a tricky afternoon but we kept going, made positive changes and chucked everything at them but things just didn’t fall for us.

“We hit the post and had crosses that went right across the six-yard box that no one could quite get on the end of so you can’t fault our endeavour.

"We tried our best to get the win, as we always do, but it wasn’t to be."

The result continues a slight dip in form for the Mackerels, who have now won just once in their last five league games, and Hinshelwood believes their position at the top makes opponents more motivated to claim a scalp.

He said: “It’s down to us to be good enough to break teams down but it’s difficult.

“We try and find that solution to break teams down and we’ve done that on many occasions this year where we’ve had to change shape to try and find a different way with our formation but it’s a good challenge.”

He continued: “It is tough but there’s not much between the teams at the bottom and the top.

"You need a little bit of luck and you need your players to be at top level.

“If one or two of them have an off day, you can potentially not get the result that you wanted, but I can’t fault the players effort.

They’re going to have off days from time to time, and they’re a young group, but they kept going and kept trying to force the win.”

Hinshelwood also heaped praise on their opponents.

He said: “It was relentless pressure probably the last 20 minutes and full credit to Potters Bar for withstanding that.

“We’ll be disappointed with one or two chances we had but we couldn’t have done any more.

“We carried on going, players fought to the end and, when we left Aarran Raccine up front, we were playing with pretty much four up top to try and get the winning goal.

“It just didn’t drop for us on that occasion but you’ve got to give credit to the opposition to come and make it difficult and then have one or two chances themselves.”

He finished: “Every team can beat each other in this league, you just need that little bit of luck at times.

"Maybe we didn’t get that, with the ball falling for us at the right moments in the box, but all you can ask from the players is to keep trying and they certainly did that.”