Winning Worthing start: Wonder-goal and clean sheet delight Racine at Chelmsford

An 87th minute wonder-goal earned the Rebels the points in Essex on Monday night and the interim manager praised his players – but said the quality they showed was no surprise.

Worthing are still third – just two points behind Chelmsford – and now host struggling Taunton on Saturday.

Chelmsford v Worthing in pictures by Mike Gunn.

Racine said of Monday’s victory: “For me, a clean sheet is what I strive for so that was exciting to get that.

"I thought the game was going to be end-to-end, one between two good teams, and it was. Both teams had good chances and it could have gone either way but thankfully it went our way.

"Dean, Buddy and I speak and we agree that the quality of players is there so we haven’t got to do too much. Hinsh, Cam (Morrison) and Gaz (Elphcik) did great work. We’ve a team that’s quality in possession.”

Saturday’s trip to Dartford was rained off and Racine had to wait two extra days for his first game as manager. He said: "I thought it was a good time to play Dartford, but that gave us an extra day of recovery, where Chelmsford had played Saturday. In hindsight it was probably a good thing.”

Racine said he’d not get carried away by a winning start: “Regardless of the result it was never going to be a case of thinking the worst or getting ahead of myself. It’s one game of ten to go, which I know is a cliche… but… never too high, never too low.”