Worthing boss: Expectation is something to be relished

The Mackerel Men will start the 2021-22 Isthmian premier campaign as many people’s title favourites, having topped the table at the end of each of the past two unfinished seasons.

The club have made it clear they feel they belong in National South – but now Hinshelwood and his staff and players have to get the job done.

They have a tough trip to Folkesotne to get things under way on Saturday before playing their first Woodside Road league game for 17 months when they host Bowers and Pitsea a week later.

Although they have lost Rocky Aguiar to Swindon and a loan deal for Kane Wills has fallen through, Hinshelwood insists his midfield options – along with those all over the pitch – are good.

“I’m happy with the squad in midfield and elsewhere,” he told us.

“We have a good number of players who can play in different positions, and we have a lot of good young players who we know will be pushing the more established guys for places in the team.

“In the friendlies we’ve been trying to get the balance between giving minutes to those who need them and rest to players who need it.”

Hinshelwood said everyone at the club was aware Worthing would be a highly fancied team in the division, but said they just had to focus on their own performances and not worry about anyone else.

“We’d like a good start, obviously. We want to build on what we’ve done in pre-season but it’s a long season and there will be ups and downs.

“I expect the league to be very competitive. In recent years anyone’s been able to beat anyone else on their day and there’ll be a lot of teams looking to be in the top group.

“There’s going to be expectation on us but we have that expectation ourselves too and it’s something to relish.

“We may be seen as a scalp by some opponents. Some may try to shut up shop against us but through pre-season, the players have shown their profesionalism and shown they’re hungry to succeed. We’ll have our fans watching us again and we can’t wait to get going.”