Four games in 24 hours? That'll do nicely, says Worthing FC boss

The Worthing boss looked at 40 or more players – ranging from first-team certs to young hopefuls – as they faced Littlehampton Town on Friday night and Winchester City, Whitehawk and Pagham on Saturday afternoon.

Mike Gunn's picture gallery from Worthing's weekend friendlies.

The plethora of games gave Hinshelwood and his staff the chance to see almost everyone at their disposal in match action as they judge who will make up the 18-20 man squad for the National South campaign and who might need to go out on loan or won’t make the cut.

They have four friendlies left – starting at home to League Two Swindon on Saturday and at Horsham next Tuesday.

Worthing lost 2-1 to Littlehampton and 3-1 to Winchester but beat Whitehawk 2-1 and drew 3-3 with an U18 line-up at Pagham.

Hinshelwood said: “It was a really useful couple of days in terms of giving everyone game time.

"We fielded a mixture of regulars we know will be in the first-team squad, U18s and trialists. You can only see so much in training and really need to have a look at people in matches to get an idea of what they can do.

"I definitely feel the games have helped us make decisions on who can get into that 18 to 20-man squad and who we’ll have other plans for.”

Worthing experimented with 60-minute matches against Winchester and the Hawks and Hinshelwood said it worked well and was something they’d do again. "It makes more sense than playing one 90-minute match and making loads of changes after an hour. It’s meant we have seen more players over a full hour.”

One man who won’t be part of Worthing’s first foray into National League football is Dean Cox, who has decided to move on. Hinshelwood said the former Brighton and Orient man wanted more regular football than he looked likely to get at Woodside Road, and he wished him well.

Defender Pat Webber has been having a break from football but may yet return to the Rebels camp.