Chairman Hunter on the factors that gave Worthing FC the edge in the promotion battle

He has been chairman for six years, in which time they have risen from the Isthmian Premier to become big players in National South and now a club looking forward to dinig at non-league’s top table.

Forty-eight hours after watching the title and promotion clinched, we asked him if it had sunk in yet: “Not yet – not yet because there’s so much to absorb in terms of what’s been achieved. We recognise we’re going up and we know how jubilant everyone at the club and around the town has been.

"We’ve enjoyed celebrating over the weekend and we’re incredibly delighted with what’s happened.

"When we got promoted from the Isthmian Premier into National League South we simply didn’t know what to expect. It felt like a big jump. It was a big jump. And I remember in our first season we just throught ‘let’s make sure we survive this season and see what we can achieve from there’.

"But it exceeded expectations and three years in a row we were in the play-offs.

"It’s only our fourth season in the league and yet we’ve been knocking on the door for the three previous seasons too.

"This season we looked at last year (when Worthing came close to the title then lost in the play-offs) and thought ‘what can we do as a club and a board to improve our chances this year over last year?’. It was learn and adapt.

"A big thing was contact time between the management and coaches and the players, so we decided to have that edge to get us over the line by going full-time. And then around March time we asked the question of the management group ‘what do you need to get automatic promotion – what would help?’

"They said if you could strengthen the squad and have players coming off the bench equally as good as those on the pitch, then that’s really going to help. That’s where we made some improvements to the squad – things perhaps we haven’t done in previous years, again just to give us that little extra bit of edge, just to get us over the line. And it worked.

"It’s important when you’ve had three years of trying to break through that you think ‘what will really make the difference this year?’ And I think that has helped."

Hunter said Adam Hinshelwood’s return was crucial. Worthing were some way off the play-off places when he returned in October, when Chris Agutter took the job at Sutton United.

"We were happy with Chris, we liked working with him, we couldn’t prevent his opportunity to go up a league, we had to let him follow that. But we were fortunate enough to bring Adam back,” Hunter added.

"For us to win automatic promotion from there is fantastic but I have to say we didn’t bring Adam back just to get us up. We brought Adam back so that if we did go up, we had a manager that had experience at both ends of the National Premier table with York City and who could navigate through that league as well."

Hunter has been chairman for six years and always felt this level was within Worthing’s grasp. "I’ve always had that in my mind. People see improvements but I’ve always seen more opportunity, the same with the playing squad and with the staff we have around the club.

"There’s been a lot of transition but I’ve always seen a greater vision for the club all round. I think the board share that view and that’s what we’re aiming to achieve.”