A brace from Sophie Humphrey, along with a fantastic free kick from Sam Mee and a penalty from Gemma Worsfold secured a 4-1 victory and another big three points for the Reds, as they maintained their 100% league record.
After making a bright start to proceedings, the visitors created their first real openings on 10-minutes, when Chloe Lelliott’s long range effort was blocked on the edge of the box, before Rebecca Barron’s first time follow up drifted narrowly over the Hassock’s crossbar.
Worthing had further chances to open the scoring in the opening exchanges, Lelliott ‘s effort from range was well held by Robins keeper Eleanor Moquet on 15-minutes, before Humphreys stinging drive moments later forced her into another great sprawling stop.
The home side’s number one almost undone her previous good work just before the half hour mark when she allowed Barron’s shot from the edge of the box to squirm from her grasp, however she recovered well to keep the visitors at bay.
With the away sides defence calmly dealing with any threat posed by the hosts, Worthing finally found the opening goal their dominance deserved on 42-minutes. After being released by Lelliott’s perfect through ball, Humphrey expertly drilled her effort across Moquet and into the far corner from the edge of the box to give her side the lead at half time.
The Reds came roaring out of the blocks after the interval, and almost doubled their lead within five-minutes of the restart, when Rebecca Thompson-Agbro narrowly headed over from Mee’s perfect cross from a corner. With Worthing pressing for a second, manager Michelle Lawrence introduced Sophie Frost for Brooke Marshall on 53-minutes to give her side a greater presence in midfield. Barely five-minutes after that switch, Worthing increased their advantage. Following some neat build up play on the edge of the box, Mee’s tame shot was gathered by Humphrey, who turned and fired past Moquet from close range.
After defending valiantly for the first 60-minutes, Hassocks were dealt another hammer blow when Mee stepped up from 25-yards and smashed an unstoppable dipping free kick which crashed past Moquet and into the top left corner of the net to make it 3-0.
With a comfortable lead now secured, the visitors continued to control proceedings and had the chance to make it four on 69-minutes from the penalty spot, when Worsfold was needlessly tripped inside the box after laying the ball off to Humphrey. Worthing’s number 10 took responsibility and curled a precise spot kick into the roof of the net to put the game beyond Hassocks.
Worthing played out the remainder of the half in confident style as they maintained good spells of possession as their hosts began to tire. Hassocks did manage to grab a consolation with 2-minutes remaining, when Jess Craig tucked home from the penalty spot after Tammy Waine had inadvertently tripped her inside the box.
Worthing saw out the remainder of the game without any further difficulty as they stormed to another important away victory in their pursuit of the league title. With maximum points from their opening 11 fixtures, Worthing currently sit 11 points ahead of Lewes in 2nd having played a game more.
The Reds face another away trip in a weeks’ time, when they travel to Kent to face fifth place Ashford at The Charing Playing Fields on Sunday the 2nd of February.
Speaking after the game, scorer Sophie Humphrey reflected on another positive all round performance from her side. She said ” It was nice to control the game and create as many chances as we did. I hadn’t scored in a while, so I was really pleased to get a couple. Everyone is working hard each week to make sure we keep getting three points on a Sunday so it’s important that we take the positives from today into a difficult game at Ashford next week. Right now I’m really happy with my football, it’s all about improving my consistency and fitness in the coming months”.
Manager Michelle Lawrence was also pleased with her teams battling performance rewarded with another impressive result. She said ” I think we controlled the game well today, especially in the second half when we found our clinical edge. Credit to Hassocks, who were difficult to break down and frustrated us for large parts of the game. We put in a very professional performance and maintained our focus well throughout the game, eventually we got the rewards. Next week’s game at Ashford will be another tough test, and we’ll be looking for another positive performance”.
