Worthing FC have reached the top tier – now whole town must do its bit to support them

They did it in front of a record crowd – well, it was a record unless you take the late Morty Hollis’s recollection of a pre ‘health and safety’ attendance against Pegasus in the old Amateur Cup in the 1950s.

In last week’s preview piece I did touch on how the Rebels’ potential success would be especially sweet for three individuals connected to the Rebels, but it was most remiss of me to omit an important fourth person.

That’s partly because he’s a very modest person and I wasn’t sure if he would be attending – unfortunately he had commitments elsewhere.

Not that they should, but the overwhelming majority of the 3,400 or so Worthing fans in the Sussex Transport Stadium on Saturday would have had no inclination of how close the club were to folding back in 2014.

Club history rightly tells us that the legendary George Dowell thankfully contacted the club at the 11th hour, but it was the then Under-18 coach Calvin Buckland who instigated the original contact.

Calvin went on to work at the club with George for a number of years, building the firm foundations which helped achieve the success at the weekend.

So now the Rebels finally find themselves at the highest level of the non-league pyramid, some 40 or so years since they originally turned down the invitation.

Back in 1984 fresh from their iconic FA Cup run the year before, the Rebels finished runners-up to Sutton United in the Isthmian Premier. United turned down the promotion (you could do that back then) and the invitation passed down to Worthing.

I was talking recently to then Worthing director Ray Bloom, who said the refusal, at the time wrongly deemed ‘unambitious’ by the ill-informed in the town, was nothing more than an economic decision.

The likes of Raynsford, Edmonds, Lelliott et al were still working full-time, Ray made a very good example, “We had Micky Edmonds on £35 a week (different times!), so you have to play Gateshead on a Tuesday night, so he’s got to take both Tuesday and Wednesday off his day job, and we’ve got to pay him a lot more than £35 to cover it.”

At the time Britain was in the grip of recession, and Bloom was rightly not convinced the Rebels would either reach the break-even crowd figure or the potential increased playing budget.

Nearly 50 years on, times have truly changed, but while you could argue the Worthing footballing public have stepped up with the increased attendances, as Jimmy James and the Vagabonds sang: “Now is the time.”

As a town we have to get well and truly behind the Rebels, through match attendances but also sponsorship.

Our town’s football team have delivered football excellence, but it’s a two-way street – we must support them back, good or bad, win or lose.

Up the Rebels!