Worthing FC players more than ready for their reunion

Adam Hinshelwood says Worthing’s training schedule will be shaped by the players when they stage their long-awaited reunion next week.
Adam Hinshelwood / Picture: Stephen GoodgerAdam Hinshelwood / Picture: Stephen Goodger
Adam Hinshelwood / Picture: Stephen Goodger

With outdoor sport allowed to resume on Monday, the Mackerel Men will be training from Tuesday and are likely to gather twice a week.

But the club’s under-19s, who have been allowed to train in an educational setting for the past fortnight, have been clamouring to train three times a week.

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And manager Hinshelwood says he’ll be happy to set up the same schedule for the first-team squad if there’s the desire for it.

An added incentive for the squad, who have not played since the end of October and are getting together for the first time since December 23, is that this will be a first chance for them to train on the newly relaid artificial Woodside pitch.

With no league or cup games on the horizon, it’s training only for now for Worthing – with a couple of friendlies likely to be arranged for late April or sometime in May.

Hinshelwood said the new Woodside surface was playing ‘very well’ and the under-19s felt it was a ‘vast improvement’ on the previous surface.

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“We’ll have the first team squad in from Tuesday and see what the boys are saying about how many sessions a week they want,” said the manager.

“The education boys have been keen to train Saturdays as well as twice during the week and it may be the same with the other lads.

“The tempo of our sessions has been really good and although there’s no competitive games to work towards, that’s become the norm at the moment. But we’ll soon have next season to think about.”

Hinshelwood expects to have a full first-team squad to work with – and hopes the majority of his line-up will be sticking around for another bid for promotion to National League South in 2021-22.

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He has yet to sit down with the board and finalise the playing budget for next season but is hopeful there will be a good level of stability within the squad.

“We hope to start arranging a couple of friendlies in the next week or so. I’d think we’ll stay together to around the end of May then have a break – the length of which I’ll be guided on by the players – before coming back for a proper pre-season.”

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