The Sussex side had defender Lee Martin dismissed as they slipped to a 3-2 defeat which leaves them still in relegation trouble.

They had threatened a shock win when Alex Ballamy fired the first goal of a lively contest.

Ballamy said: "We will contest the decision to send Lee off because we felt it was unfair and it cost us the game.

"I couldn't fault the guys' effort, but we missed four or five gilt-edged chances in the first few minutes.

"We deserved at least a draw, but this result means we're not out of the woods yet."

Gore Court were 3-1 up before John Massie's penalty set up a storming finale as Worthing chased an equaliser.

Their next opponents are Horsham, whose skipper Keith Anderson praised "a superb team performance" after a 5-1 win away to old rivals Mid Sussex.

Widemen Richard Lowe and Ian Brown caused chaos as Horsham's training ground work on attacking moves paid off.

Brown completed a hat-trick and there were also strikes for Mark Ansell and Anderson. Andy Green replied from the penalty spot.

Middleton/Bognor shared a 3-3 draw with hosts Tulse Hill. Manager Roger Harvey said: "We've never beaten them and I'm afraid we rather threw it away this time."

Mark Pacey hit two and his bother Chris was also on target.

Injury-hit Crawley had to settle for a 0-0 draw at struggling Folkestone.

Already without sweeper Chris Peach and defender Adrian Bettesworth, they also lost Ian Watkins with a head injury just before the break.

Matt Thompson impressed at the back but Stuart Greenwood and Carl Wright both saw efforts go wide when Crawley threatened.

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