TRYING TO MAKE TOO SURE

THE POINTS were shared at a freezing Old Barn Way on Tuesday by two Goal of the Season contenders. Wickers took the lead with a brilliantly-taken Kevin Sharpe effort on 20 minutes only to see the visitors equalise eight minutes later with a clever Neil Shelley pass and a Steve Pickles 25-yard volley into the top corner.

The game started promisingly for Southwick when after only nine minutes Carl Dunk had Dean Fuller diving at full stretch to turn a goalbound strike around the post.

Worthing referee Lloyd Rendell then had words with United manager Ian Browne and insisted that he need not justify every decision made by he and his assistant referees.

Although the temperature seemed somewhere below zero the battle in midfield between Mark Burt and Pickles was red hot with both players putting in the sort of tackles Ron 'Chopper' Harris would have been proud of.

However, it was Burt's Wickers who took the lead when, after some sensational one-touch football, Dunk delivered the final ball to Sharpe who coolly converted.

United went deservedly level, though, and Pickles then had the chance to put his side into the lead on 36 minutes but fired high and wide when all shivering around the ground expected he would surely find the net.

Within seven minutes of the restart Southwick's James Rhodes came on for Mark Harris and was soon in the thick of it with a crunching tackle that left Pickles in a heap.

Although the passing was excellent both teams seemed to want to walk the ball into the net when the killer shot on goal begged.

Frustrated Southwick general manager Mick Fogden turned to club physio Tony Dineen at one point and said that they were trying to do an 'Arsenal'. Unfortunately for the Wickers, Monsieur Thierry Henry was at home with a hot chocolate.

WORTHING UNITED: Fuller; Aylett, Keech, N.Shelley, Raynsford; J.Shelley, Brown, Pickle, Schneider; Hancock, Hughes. Subs: Corona (Hancock 24), Webb (Hughes 53), Banks (Aylett 80), Browne.