BRIGHTLINGSEA Regent boss Tom Rothery believes his side are reaping the rewards from going "back to basics".

The R's ended last year with a worrying run of five defeats from six Bostik League premier division matches, culminating in a dismal 3-0 reverse at home to Tonbridge Angels.

However, their injury-hit squad bucked the trend with a morale-boosting victory at Lowestoft Town on New Year's Day.

They then drew at Metropolitan Police before seeing off Worthing 3-0 at the Taydal Stadium on Saturday.

Rothery puts their success down to going back to the drawing board and doing the fundamentals right.

“It was men against boys in that Tonbridge match and we were left wondering ‘where do we go from here’," he told the Gazette.

“But what we’ve done is gone back to basics, in terms of defending, working hard, being organised and having a good shape.

“We’ve been resilient and kept believing in what we’re doing.

"If we can be a solid unit, we know we’ve got the quality and attacking threat to score goals and hurt teams and when that happens, you get the rewards.

"That’s why I was so pleased to not only win but keep a clean sheet against Worthing.

“It was a huge achievement and the first since I’ve been here as manager.

“One of my biggest strengths, as far as I’m concerned, is getting a team organised and the back four were excellent, because they were under pressure at times.

"That, ultimately, gave us a platform to go and win the game."

Brightlingsea made it seven points from nine so far this year thanks to strikes from Josh Gould and two-goal hero Billy Hunt, in Saturday's success.

However, Rothery felt it was a tough contest and harder than the score suggests.

“It was a really difficult game," he said.

“People will look at the score and think we won comfortably but that wasn’t the case.

“Worthing are a good side and they were third in the form guide, based on the previous six games.

“They moved the ball well and it was really tough for the first 60 minutes.

“But we kept our shape, defended well and, as the game went on, became a bit more aggressive in the way we pressed.

“We found our way into the match and after going ahead, I felt confident we could go on to win.

“Worthing had to gamble a bit and come at us, which left gaps that we were able to exploit.

“It was just a really pleasing performance and a massive result for us, which took us ten points clear of them.

“While we’re not necessarily looking over our shoulder, it’s nice to put a cushion between ourselves and sides below because our main objective is to stay in this league and finish as high as we can."