Who says results do not matter in pre-season friendlies? Not Martin Hinshelwood, who kicked off his career as Albion manager with a victory.

The Seagulls' boss was fired to the annual pre-season win at Woodside Road by a thunderous double strike from Robbie Pethick.

It was all very comfortable by the end, a chance for the Seagulls players to knock the ball around rather than be sent on the lung-bursting runs which form the central part of summer training.

As he faced the media for the second time in two days, however, Hinshelwood admitted this was a friendly he really wanted to win.

He said: "You are always a little bit nervous at your first game whatever level you are at. This could have been a banana skin for us.

"I knew a lot of people would be here expecting us to win. I hate losing games whatever it is, even a five-a-side, but overall I was very pleased and pleased it's over.

"We wanted two good 45 minutes, a good training session, to be bright and lively and I felt we were throughout the game."

After his 25-year wait for the limelight Hinshelwood could not have enjoyed a warmer welcome as Albion manager.

Not just from the evening sunshine but also from the applause which greeted him from a crowd nudging the 2,500 mark as he walked across the pitch to take his place in the dug-out.

His former Seagulls boss Barry Lloyd could not have been further away, watching from the back row of the directors' box on the other side of the pitch, though he is among those wishing the new Albion manager the best of luck in Division One.

Hinshelwood is expected to give youth a chance in the new season so it was perhaps not surprising to see his nephew Adam in central defence and Danny Harding operating on the left of midfield in a 4-4-2 line-up.

Bradley Allen, the Grimsby striker beginning a week's trial in Sussex, started alongside another youngster in Chris McPhee.

Allen almost made a very early impact as his glancing header on nine minutes produced a sharp stop from James Wastell low to his right.

By then Michel Kuipers at the other end had also done well as he pushed away Wes Lopez's angled drive.

Allen lifted a volley over Wastell's bar and Paul Watson and Richard Carpenter fired shots off target from around 20 yards in what was a lively tussle for the start of pre-season.

It became even more interesting on 27 minutes when Worthing made the most of a gap on the left side of Albion's defence to take the lead.

Right back Danny Smith rolled a precise ball into the path of Ben Carrington, whose chip across goal was equally pinpoint, allowing Mark Knee, one of the smallest players on the pitch, to guide a perfect header past Kuipers' right hand and into the bottom corner.

Albion were level 14 minutes later, helped by an astute advantage from referee Steve Tomlin after Carrington had flattened Paul Brooker midway inside the Worthing half.

The Seagulls continued the attack and Nathan Jones, who had shown a real appetite for getting forward from his left back berth, rolled home a deadly accurate 20-yarder with his less favoured right foot.

The visitors could even have been ahead within a couple of minutes of that strike. First Allen gave McPhee a hint of a chance which disappeared as he failed to take the ball in his stride, then Brooker's neat pass set up the trialist, who skipped around Wastell's challenge but, from a near impossible angle, could only shoot into the side netting.

Hinshelwood changed his entire 11 at half time with the new look line-up featuring a central defensive partnership of Pethick and Adam Virgo while David Lee and Danny Marney formed the strike pairing.

It did not take Pethick long to get forward, thumping Albion ahead two minutes after the restart with a fierce right foot drive from just outside the box which flew past substitute goalkeeper Matthew May and in off the inside of the post.

That must have been a daunting introduction for Rebels' young No. 1 but he responded well, making successive saves from Shaun Wilkinson and Marney.

Even deep into the second half the temperature had hardly dropped from what it was just before kick-off, ensuring a good work-out for both teams on what looked an excellent playing surface.

Marney was inches from providing a spectacular finale as his cleverly improvised volley bounced back off the far post.

Then Geoff Pitcher tried his luck from 25 yards and May further distinguished himself by flying to his right to tip the ball past the post.

Instead it was Pethick who found the top corner, rifling home another terrific right foot shot direct from a free-kick awarded for Andy Beech's lunge on Dean Hammond on the edge of the box.

Then Pethick produced an impressive contribution at the other end, flying in to block when Lopez looked set to thump home an immediate reply for the Rebels.

Albion added a fourth on 87 minutes when Wilkinson's cross from the left was unselfishly pushed back across goal by Pitcher for Lee to tap in the most simple of finishes.

Pre-season friendly it may have been but the Martin Hinshelwood Show is up and running and it could not have had a more promising opening night.

Worthing: Wastell (Sub: May 45); Smith (Sub Smart 58), Hibberd, Burt (Sub Venton 67), Beech, Alexander, Kennett, Knee (Sub G. Jones, 67), Geddes (Sub Scerri 58), Lopez, Carrington (Sub Rapps 58).

Albion: (First half): Kuipers; Watson, Jones, Cullip, A. Hinshelwood, Carpenter, Brooker, Allen, McPhee, Oatway, Harding. (Second half): Packham; Melton, Mayo, Pethick, Virgo, Hammond, Pitcher, Rogers, Lee, Marney, Wilkinson.

Referee: Steve Tomlin (Lewes).