For their third game in seven days, Jasmine Smith came back in for Tilly Jones and Ella Hunkin became goalkeeper number three of the season so far, following on from Lauren Dolbear’s cup cameo against Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday night. Jess Faires was also missing on a roasting Sunday afternoon.

Despite the intense heat, it only took two minutes for Lauren Amerena to come out on top in a pair of tremendous fifty-fifty tackles and send Skye Bacon racing clear on the left wing.Her dangerous, low centre caused concern but no one was able to get a telling touch.

Shortly afterwards, Mia South glanced a Bacon corner narrowly the wrong side of the near post.

Unrelenting, Rebels kept up the early pace and pressure when a neat one-two between Portishead match winner Amber Hazlewood and Bacon resulted in the latter making hay on the left once more, prior to forcing visiting netminder Jess Vallis into turning her fizzing delivery away from danger.

Within seconds, it appeared, for a moment, that Amerena had headed the hosts in front, but,  somehow, Vallis was able to avert the mini-crisis.

However, Sod’s Law dictated that it would be the guests who seized the initiative. A weak clearance fell straight to a white/green shirt, leaving Liane Folkenstern to stroke home around the midway mark of the first-half.

Suddenly facing a deficit, Worthing had two bites at the cherry via Amerena seeing her effort blocked and Sophia Wickenden firing over on the follow-up, a little past the half-hour.

Then, moments later Bacon’s ball inside to Amerena ended with ‘Loz’ blasting marginally above the bar.

‘Ammo’ was covering every blade of grass and was soon at it again, by way of a right to centre drive that saw the space in front of her open up for a twenty yarder that custodian Vallis tipped onto the crossbar and caught, before Oceana Adams could capitalise.

Reds’ task was made that much harder, thanks to Laila Malcolm’s reaction to being fouled earning her a spell in the sin bin which straddled the half-time interval.

Not that they let it effect them too much, as a couple of minutes after the restart, a brilliant turn and pre-assist by Amerena from the half-way line out to Bacon led to the winger tearing down the left flank, beating her marker and laying off for an edge-of-the-box Hazlewood to side-foot in her second strike in three competitive runouts, via the underside of the top of the goal frame.

Although, all that hard work nearly went to waste, courtesy of a misplaced defensive pass allowing Katie Kingshott to miss the far upright by a matter of inches.

Unfortunately, less than 120 seconds further on, the winner was forthcoming when debutant Hunkin failed to hold on to Hannah Bennett’s free-kick; Folkenstern gladly gobbling up the gift to level the score.

Undeterred, Amerena did well to regain possession before finding Smith for a byline ball into the mixer that ultimately provided the reintroduced Malcolm with an opportunity she blasted off target.

The Amerena/Bacon partnership almost paid dividends again as outstanding play by the former resulted in her partner-in-crime picking up the loose ball and stinging the palms of Vallis, before finally lobbing into the ‘keeper’s hands.

Then, not long after that, Bacon’s deep delivery was headed on by travelling Skipper Rosie Eden but straight against Amerena, who could do nothing to prevent a goal-kick being the outcome.

Play quickly switched to the other end and newbie Hunkin stood tall to frustrate goalscorer Folkenstern, after she’d been slipped through the middle and began bearing down on goal, keeping out the second attempt as well to back up her initial stop for good measure.

However, Adams was a whisker away from converting a Smith byline cross, with the homesters continuing their search for parity and more.

Ten minutes to go and Maisy Smith found herself in a great position, following another side-rule, centrally-placed pass, though the forward found Hunkin in unbeatable form; Ella producing a good, strong parry to keep her team in the game.

No surprise that our new ‘number one’ was at it again with only four to go, this time denying Freya Jennings after she’d been supplied by fellow sub Florrie Marsh.

A near role-reversal resulted in Marsh beating the offside trap, only for Hunkin to do the business yet again.

Deep into stoppages, Worthing’s last line of defence did well to recover when Maisy Smith’s long-range shot skipped up off the turf in front of her, then reacted wonderfully well to block Marsh one last time.