‘We are top of the league’, sung the Worthing fans as the referee blew his whistle for full-time. A game won by a single goal – again – but decided by a lone, pivotal moment. Boreham Wood simply threw this game away.

Before proceedings the top five teams in the division all had recorded 52 points. Remarkable. Something had to budge, and with postponements ripping through the division, the spotlight was on Woodside Road.

The place was a wind tunnel for the opening half. Full of its usual pre-match fizz and noise, but brutally blustery. It was not the night for aerial football.

And so, it began. And, once again, Worthing were behind early on. Tom Whelan curling in a corner from the left, hanging in the air as it drops sharply, finding the feet of Kwesi Appiah, who stabbed it home.

Matt Rush drilled an effort wide before Jon Benton ballooned a shot over the bar after a defensive mishap to inflict further concern for a Worthing backline who had looked impenetrable for much of Saturday’s superb victory in Maidstone.

But much like that day, where the Reds grew into the game after going a goal down, a similar scent would drift over Woodside Road. Jack Spong was spraying his trademark passes to either flank, this time finding Joel Colbran who breezed beyond his marker and found Temi Babalola unmarked in the centre, but the shot on the spin was blocked. Nathan Ashmore then denied Colbran at the back post. The momentum had shifted.

Worthing were starting to find those pockets of space, shift forward pen Boreham Wood back. Charles Clayden would be caught offside more times than he had touches in the box. The pace of Sam Packham helping to keep his side’s high-line in check.

With 31 minutes played Chris Bush completely lost his head. What is it with opposition players pushing Worthing players into advertising boards? Kane Wills had suffered a similar fate at Dorking on Boxing Day, and now it was Faal. With the ball gone, too, Bush bundles Faal into the boards. The crowd erupts. The red is shown.

Faal was fine to continue. He had tried his best to link up with Babalola, but the ball just wasn’t sticking. Reuben Carvalho would glide beyond his man with bravura effect, but then the final ball would sail onto the head of a visiting head. The half time whistle was a welcome sound for the Boreham Wood players. They needed that pause, but then perhaps so too did Worthing. The passes needed to be quicker, sharper. The patterns of play were present. But the end result went amiss.

Babalola was taken off before the restart. Odei Martin Sorondo on, the midfield was now more compact. Luke Garrard had scrambled his side’s style at the break, and his black and gold shirts now sat impressively deep. There were often times when they had all 10 men in their own penalty area.

You could tell it was only a matter of time. Worthing fans packed tightly behind the goal could tell it was only a matter of time.

And, most important, Joel Colbran knew the same. He has popped up with the important goal throughout the course of the campaign. This could be his most crucial. It was Carvalho who crafted it. Delicately and beautifully, placing the cross into Colbran’s pass with precision. All he had to do was get a head on it.

There were just so many routes to goal. First, you had the ball into Faal’s feet, then the cross into the box, then the Cashman or Spong long-ranger. The Worthing defence had been superfluous in this half. Joe Partington was sacrificed, and on came Bailey Smith. Agutter had switched to all-out attack mode.

That expectancy of a second Worthing goal still clung to the air. Still bounced off the stands. The hosts were worming their way into the box with frequency, and Faal’s strike that grazed the post raised the decimals even higher. Joe Cook was perhaps a touch fortunate not to receive his own marching for a cynical challenge. The ensuing free-kick almost finding its way in.

The 78th minute arrived. Woodside Road erupted. Carvalho had been excellent again here, a constant threat with the ball at his feet. This time, he decided to do it all on his. Pirouetting, spiralling beyond black shirts. Soon all he was the bright yellow shirt of Nathan Ashmore in front of him. The finish is wonderful. Ashmore rooted.

Things were bouncing now. Boreham Wood went to a more direct approach now, piling on the proverbial late pressure. There were collective groans when the announcement for five minutes of added time rung around the ground. The seconds ticked by. A might scramble to finish. Three points secured. Worthing top of the table.

1,500 breathed a rather large sigh of relief at that moment. The Adams Food Service Stand was alive. Carvalho got involved in the post-victory fist bumps. Then Agutter, too. This was a special night at Woodside Road. It’s not the first, and it won’t be the last.