It was another away defeat, but this was somewhat unfortunate for the Green Lions who battled hard despite losing players to injury and threatened another later comback.

Craig Young pounced on a lapse home defence straight from kick-off to grab a shock lead within second of the first whistle as many were still taking their seats.

Both Kieran Mahon and Josh Steel were forced off injured within moments of each other, the former’s looking particularly nasty as an awkward fall left him with a dislocated shoulder and a hospital trip. Marc McGrath also went into the game feeling ill and had to come off at half-time. Add to that the fact that left-back Jason Winch was playing his second tough 90 minutes in the space of five days despite only just returning from two years out with a serious knee injury.

But Tony Vance’s side held on for nearly an hour against a strong and big Worthing side, who were perhaps fortunate that either equaliser from Lloyd Dawes on 57 minutes wasn’t ruled out for some over-physical obstruction of Jakub Machlowski in the Guernsey goal.

They then went in front through Brannon O’Neill on 69 minutes and looked like they were cruising to victory Curtis Gayler netted on 78 and 80 minutes.

But suddenly the Green Lions sprang to life in the dying moments, with Matt Loaring grabbing what looked like a conslation. Then, moments after the restart, Tom Strawbridge put in a cracking sliding challenge and the ball was worked to Paris Pereira on the right, whose pinpoint cross was met with a powerful diving header from Dom Heaume.

Unfortunately it was a little too late for GFC to find a fourth but there was a much more positive mood within the squad after the game compared with recent defeats.