Worthing’s National League win at Carlisle: Was it the greatest ‘game of two halves’ ever seen?

In Albion culture there’s a facet, referred to as ‘half time at Hereford’ which recalls what over 1,000 of us were feeling at the break on May 3, 1997 at Edgar Street. One-nil down, with the Albion not so much with one foot in the Conference, ironically now the National League, they were waist deep.

Thankfully a Robbie Reinault equaliser dictated the day ended well, but in 29 years time I wonder how many of the 284 dedicated Worthing fans will recall how they felt at ‘half-time at Carlisle’?

How to see Worthing FC on DAZN this season.

With the fixture computer deeming that Worthing would make their National League bow away to one of the hot favourites for the title, it was always going to a baptism of fire.

But having watched and now rewatched the entire 90 minutes on the live feed, I have to say in my near of 30 years of covering football in the media and the 20 years or so watching it before, I’m struggling to think of a bigger example of the classic footballing cliche “game of two halves”.

The stats clearly don’t lie in that first 45 minutes, Carlisle United had 72% of the possession and 12 shots on goal whilst Worthing registered nothing in that department,

Carlisle, after a plethora of missed chances, finally took the lead on 42 minutes when Georgie Kelly headed in, and even the most diehard Worthing follower, either watching in Cumbria or on the TV feed back in Sussex would have conceded that the goal ‘was coming’. And the same diehards would have been concerned for the Rebels’ fortunes in the second half. But as the late great Jimmy Greaves said on more than one occasion, it is indeed “a funny old game”.

Adam Hinshelwood and his management team clearly said plenty in the dressing room at the break because Worthing, despite the goal deficit, came out a different team in the second half, and as Kelly’s goal was indeed ‘coming’ at the end of the first period, so was new singing Dom Hutchinson’s equaliser on 67 minutes.

With incoming United boss Rob Elliott giving six new summer signings a full debut in front of nearly a 9,000 crowd, fans on both sides would have thought it would have been kitchen sink time re Carlisle’s approach in the last 20 minutes or so.

Yet two well taken goals by Razzaq Coleman De Graft on 82 minutes and Ricky Aguiar on 86, regardless of the home’ media describing them as both breakaway and against the run of play, turned the game on its head and sent droves of home fans heading for the exits.

An unforced and hopefully out-of-character error by Harrison Foulkes in the Worthing goal allowed Kelly to double his tally and set up a both exciting and nail-biting finish for the Woodside Road faithful.

But after over six minutes of added time, the Rebels held on for an historic and well-deserved three points.

Hinshelwood said: “We changed to a slightly different shape in midfield at half-time and just wanted the players to be alot braver when we had the ball. Our analysts Jamie Brookes showed some good pictures to the players at half-time and it all seemed to help.

"We were clinical and scored at good times… dissappointed with the two we conceded as we had players back at these times ,there’s lots to improve on but a good disciplined away performance.”

Whether or not ‘half-time at Carlisle’ will be as pivotal as its Hereford counterpart remains to be seen, but what I do know is this: it’s certainly well and truly whets the appetite for next Saturday’s opening league home game against against Forest Green Rovers.

Both football and life are about barometers, and Adam’s first game after his sensational return ‘home’ last October was against FGR in the FA Cup, in the end it was a comfortable win for the visitors. I’m pretty sure it won’t be so one-sided next Saturday...