Unbeaten in their last four games, Adam Hinshelwoods Mackerel Men had lifted themselves off the bottom of the table after a disappointing start to their campaign and were closing the points gap on the teams above them.

With Brightlingsea Regent looking to consolidate their own mid table position this was a key fixture for both managers.

Tom Rothery and his coaching staff would have been encouraged by the R’s last two performances on the road at Lowestoft and Met Police with Regent looking to put in a similar shift in front of their home fans.

From the kick off both teams looked to establish a high tempo and move the ball quickly. Worthing have a young side, much like the R’s and both managers like to play football the right way with pace, movement and good passing.

It had all the makings off a decent encounter despite the challenging mid winter playing surface.

The visitors settled well and forced several corners and free kicks early on as Regent worked hard to win possession and get their own wide men in behind to supply striker Billy Hunt.

As the half wore on Brightlingsea created a few half chances but nothing that really troubled Lucas Cavagnari in the Worthing goal. Both sides were struggling to find their shooting boots and despite some promising build up play the half finish 0-0 .

The visitors would have been the happier of the two teams as the game re started having kept Regent chances to a minimum during the first forty five minutes.

They would have been positively ecstatic had Alfie Parsons taken what looked like a golden chance less than a minute into the half.

Regent stopper Harry Palmer parried a fierce shot at his near post and as the ball was fired back across the box it looked as if Palmer may have got another hand on the ball. It came to Parsons on the volley.

It looked a certainty that he would steer the ball past a lone Regent defender into the open goal but to the relief of the home support his effort sailed high over the crossbar.

It was beginning to feel like if the deadlock was to be broken it would be an error or a scrappy sort of goal that would split the sides and on seventy minutes this proved to be the case when a speculative cross from the Regent right flank wasn’t dealt with by the Worthing defence, eventually rebounding off Josh Gould past the despairing Cavagnari.

Just three minutes later Regent were two up and it was the R’s centre half Gould involved again.

Picking up the ball on the edge of the Worthing box and with his back to goal he was bundled over by a clumsy challenge. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

Billy Hunt cooly slotted home to put Brightlingsea in firm control of the match and leaving the Worthing boss pondering on what might have been.

On eighty one minutes Alfie Parsons was shown a red card for lashing out at Regents Aaron Condon this followed an earlier reckless challenge by the Worthing number six on Condon which had seen him given a yellow card.

Despite going down to ten men the visitors kept four up front but this meant that Regent were able to exploit space in behind with the pace and energy of Rob Harvey creating more and more chances including one for Harry McDonald that saw the Regent youngster just fail to connect with.

As the clock ticked down there was still time for Billy Hunt to notch again. On eighty seven minutes the ball was played into him on the edge of the Worthing box. Taking one touch to get the ball out of his feet Hunt struck the ball with so much poise and power that even Lucas Cavagnari at full stretch diving to his right couldn’t prevent the ball nestling in the corner of the net.

A sweet strike and an even sweeter result which sees the R’s unbeaten in their last three games taking seven points from a possible nine and conceding only twice.

A great start to 2018 and something to build on with a trip to Kingstonian next up for Rotherys red and black army.

Gavin Aplin