I made the journey down to the coast this evening to make my first visit to Palatine Park, home of Worthing Town, to see the Southern Combination (West) U23 League fixture between the “town” and “united” teams of Worthing.

Palatine Park Sports Centre is based in Goring, to the west of Worthing and boasts floodlighting and a modern 3G pitch. The clubhouse has a bar and terrace area as well as changing facilities.

The season began well for today’s visitors, Worthing United, who beat East Preston U23’s 1-5 away in their opening game. Worthing Town, coached by Cian Billington and managed by Zach Dray, lost 5-3 away at Ferring U23 in their opening match, so came into tonight’s fixture feeling they had much still to prove.

Goals thus far have come for Worthing Town from George Gilbert (2 goals) and Morgan Bishop (1 goal). Worthing United’s goals have been provided by Hugo Blacklaw-Taylor, Moses Pannell, Toby Tester, Taylor Harding and Austin Potter (All 1 goal).

In the seventh minute Worthing United’s Austin Potter went through on the right hand side of the Worthing Town box and beating a defender then squeezed a shot under keeper to break the deadlock and send the away side into a 0-1 lead.

On 22 minutes, against the run of play, the scores were suddenly level. Worthing Town’s Ammad Khan was given the ball by an opposition defender and clinically fired home.

Three minutes later Worthing United were ahead again. A rash challenge in the penalty area led to a penalty, which Taylor Harding despatched to make it 1-2.

On the stroke of half time the scores were level at 2-2 as Worthing Town’s Ammad Khan fought his way through to be one on one with keeper and score his second goal of the game.

At half time the teams went in with everything to play for and the scores locked at two-all.

With only 9 minutes of the second half gone, Worthing Town forged ahead when Ammad Khan scored his hat-trick,with a fine solo goal to make the score 3-2 on the night.

A minute later Worthing United’s Taylor Harding equalised to make it 3-3, after running through on goal and rounding the keeper, showing resilience and strength on the ball, as he scored his second goal of the evening.

In the 63rd minute the game swung once again when Cam Gill-Ibbotsen scored another fine solo goal to put the home team back in the lead at 4-3.

Worthing United, to their credit, didn’t let this late goal break their spirit. They threw everything into their efforts to secure an equaliser. As the clock ticked to the final minute of extra time, the away team secured a last ditch corner. The keeper came up and his header found its way to Lewis Oakton who fired the ball home to make the final score 4-4.

As the teams left the pitch to the applause of the crowd of 45, everyone present knew they had witnessed a classic. Both sides will be pushing for the top of the table this season if they keep up this form. I headed for the long drive home feeling thoroughly entertained.