NEWLY-APPOINTED Worthing manager Chris Agutter hopes to match the legacy that York City boss Adam Hinshelwood built on the South Coast.

After leaving Worthing for York in late-February, Hinshelwood left behind a club in which he had gained a promotion and two cup competition trophies after transforming the Rebels into an established Vanarama National League South club.

After suffering defeat in the play-off semi-finals, Worthing appointed Agutter as Hinshelwood’s permanent replacement, with the view of continuing the impressive work in which their previous boss had done.

Agutter is now looking to fill the big shoes of Hinshelwood, whilst opening up on the future of striker Ollie Pearce, who has been linked to City in recent weeks.

“The way I operated and the way I delivered at Hastings and Brighton was very much how Hinsh has done things here,” Agutter told the Non-League Paper.

“That’s why I got the job to be quite honest. It’s front-foot, possession-based football, the best form of defence is attack.

“Really aggressive. Giving young players an opportunity, recruiting under-appreciated talents and giving them a platform to showcase what they can do.

“They are big shoes to fill, and there’s probably one per cent of me going ‘Cor, that’s a tough act to follow’.

“But the other 99 per cent wants to go bigger and better and move the club even further towards the National League.

“I’ve only been in the building for a few days and there are already things where I’ve though ‘okay, maybe we could tweak this and adapt that or do things a different way’.

“I’ve watched 40 of Worthing’s games from last season and while there’s obviously a hell of a lot of similarities, there will be nuances and variations that could potentially take us to that next step.

“I wouldn’t have put myself in a situation here I didn’t feel I couldn’t be unsuccessful.

“This is a team that has won an awful lot of matches playing a style that I fully believe in.”

Agutter also spoke on the future of the prolific Pearce, who scored an incredible 43 goals in 46 league appearances last campaign.

The Worthing manager refused to confirm where Pearce’s future lies, but did say that he wouldn’t stand in his way should a higher-division side make a move.

Agutter explained: “It’s certainly not dead in the water in terms of trying to keep him at the football club.

“I spoke to all of the players, all of the staff and they were all very good conversations.

“I said to them what I have said here, we want to build on a winning team.

“Ollie has been an important part of that but I’ve just made the jump to a higher level and I’m working toward getting back to the Football League, so if a player gets an opportunity to do that, which is something which Worthing promotes, then you don’t want to get in the way.

“Equally, I’ve said to Ollie that you can’t put a price on enjoying your football and he’s certainly doing that here.”