Hallsy's Weekly Look Around the Academy - Make or Break...

It was a make or break week for both Worthing Colleges' Men's Football and Rugby sides as they took on top quality opponents in their respective National Leagues. The Rugby Performance Programme took on SEEVIC (Essex) in a double header, which would see the victors progress in the BCS Elite Cup as well as take command on the South East BCS Elite League. Worthing were out for revenge after SEEVIC defeated Worthing in the corresponding fixture back in October and were clearly up for this match in front of a healthy crowd at Worthing Leisure Centre. Worthing ran out 19-8 winners. Kieron Leeming touched down on his return to the side and this was added to by Brad Parker and a catch and drive try from Elliott Luke. The trusted boot of Bart Pegg scored the extras. Performance Programme Coach Ben Coulson was delighted with his players "Upon reflection the boys were superb and showed the correct work ethic, which was combined with their technical abilities. However the boys need to refocus to ensure that this excellent result is not wasted and that we continue at this level of performance for the rest of the season."

Men's Football Coaches Dave Hall and Danny Cullip were in the same frame of mind after an excellent away day result against Kingston College, who have dominated each opponent at their home ground for the last 2 seasons. In this top of the table ECFA National League clash Worthing College 1st XI took at 2-0 lead before half time, with Joe Warner grabbing his 13th goal of the season and Dave O'Callaghan's long range deflected effort. Worthing also spurned many chances to increase their lead and Kingston's goalkeeper was also in fine form, which could have come back to haunt Worthing, especially after Kingston pulled one back, but this was in vein and Worthing ended up 2-1 victors. This now puts Worthing three points clear of Kingston with a game in hand and in addition to this Worthing also have the last 16 of the ECFA National Premier Cup and both 1st and 2nd XI's in their respective County Cup Semi Finals, so there is still plenty to play for during this final three months of the season.

The Women's Football Performance Programme were also in BCS Elite League action against the Chelsea Academy at Chelsea's Cobham training ground. Worthing battled hard and ran their opponents close, but in the end Chelsea were just too strong for their opponents and ended up 2-0 victors. Coach Mike Bridges was still extremely proud of his players and knows that this group of players will learn so much more from this defeat rather than in some of the straight forward victories that this squad has had this season.

Onwards & Upwards,

Hallsy