Harty: Real sense of excitement at Worthing FC – but patience may be needed too
Since they first became Worthing Football Club way back in 1886 I doubt there has been a season in the club’s history where there has been more excitement, anticipation and expectation from the Woodside Road faithful.
After agonisingly falling short at the play off hurdle three seasons on the bounce, there have been almost seismic changes at the club over the summer.
Worthing have made the forward-thinking decision to go hybrid – for the uninitiated, that’s not quite full-time, but closer to it than their old part-time model.
The players train twice as much as they did before, giving manager Chris Agutter and his coaching team significantly more time to work with the squad.
And in that squad, there have been a number of changes from last season’s roster, while there’s been some high profile exits, Agutter’s recruitment has seen an interesting influx into the club.
While pre season is not really a benchmark, it’s clear to see already that Worthing with their recruitment have ‘toughened up’. That’s not to say Agutter will discard his footballing ethos and go “hump, bump and thump”, but given that Maidstone effectively bullied the Rebels in the play-offs, it will be great to see a bit more steel in the red shirts.
Given that goalkeeping issues were a big factor in Worthing’s failure last season, another significant signing in the summer, off the field this time, has been the return of experienced goalkeeping coach John Keeley.
Full disclosure before my numerous detractors start jumping up and down – yes he’s my brother-in-law, but he was an EPL GK coach long before he went on a date with Mrs Hart’s sister.
He was allowed to leave the club last summer and join Woking in the National League, and given what went on in the run-in, we will only be able to speculate if having ‘Kilo’ working with Lucas Covolan and Chris Haigh would have made a difference. But in the wake of the Maidstone defeat I did, on the back of a few Coronas, tell Worthing chairman Barry Hunter he needed to rectify the error and get Chris to get Kilo back. He obviously does listen sometimes!
Unfortunately I know more than most how close the club were to going to the wall in December 2014 so to have Worthing where they are today is not only a testament to the dedication of George Dowell and his respective staff and board members, but puts Worthing in a position where they are constantly looking forward.
The fan base is key. Worthing enjoy spectator levels the envy of most clubs at this level, but there’s the crux, the majority of the Woodside Road faithful, have never actually seen the Rebels outside the top 7, of whatever League they were playing in.
The change in playing focus is a bold and exciting move, but fans need to cut Aggy and his team a bit of slack and be patient.
It might not be necessary, hopefully they will hit the ground running, and another exciting season will unfold but this time will have the perfect ending in May.
But if it takes time, so be it – cliche alert, it is a marathon not a sprint, so let’s fill Woodside every week, win, lose or draw, and hopefully support the Rebels on to the next level.