Worthing's character questioned following Enfield Town defeat

Adam Hinshelwood has questioned Worthing's squad character and ability to perform at a consistent level in the wake of the home defeat at the hands of Enfield Town.
Adam HinshelwoodAdam Hinshelwood
Adam Hinshelwood

The Londoners ran out comfortable 3-0 victors at Woodside Road courtesy of Billy Bricknell's first-half strike and Matthew Johnson's quickfire double after the restart.

That defeat came just four days after Hinshelwood hailed an 'ultimate' away performance in the victory at Brightlingsea Regent but Worthing dropped out of the play-offs places after going down against Towners - falling to tenth in the Bostik League Premier Division.

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And the former Brighton defender did not hold back in a damning assessment of his side's display against Enfield.

It was a sixth defeat in the previous seven league outings at Woodside Road and Hinshelwood fumed: "Collectively, as a team, the performance level was not anywhere near what we expect.

"The biggest disappointment is to see a team showing more desire, outworking us, showing more passion and commitment on our patch - it’s happened too many times this season.

“The character within the team has got to be questioned when it does get difficult.

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“It’s a real tough one to take, throughout the game we did not offer enough.

"I tried to ask the players the question after, rather than me telling them what I thought, they are the ones out there playing.

"For how good we were on Tuesday night, we were so bad against Enfield.

“There was not one player that could hold their hands up and did themselves any justice.

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"You’ve got to back up a good performance by putting in another good display in the game after. We just haven’t got that at the moment, for whatever reason."

Despite having the highest home attendance in the division, Worthing have won just four of 13 matches in the league at Woodside Road this season - losing seven.

The defeat to Enfield was a sixth from the previous seven in the Bostik League.

It's a run that has left Hinshelwood bemused given the backing his squad receive on home turf.

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"Maybe we’ve got players that don’t enjoy playing in front of big crowds?," Hinshelwood said.

"The players have got to look at themselves and I’ve got to look at myself whether they can be consistent enough over a run of games.

“Is it just a case of a one-game wonder, performing in every four or five games for these players - we can’t have that.

"We’ve got fans who stick with us, keep coming and don’t get on the players backs for a couple of mistakes. Imagine if we were playing in a hostile atmosphere.

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“There’s no excuses myself, the coaching staff, the players have got to take it on the chin and got to look at ourselves after Enfield.

“If you don’t want to play in front of big crowds then maybe players shouldn’t be here."

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