Gary Dicker featured as Brighton U23s made a winning start to their pre-season campaign with a 1-0 victory over Worthing on Friday.

Ulrick Ella's first-half goal was the difference as head coach Andrew Crofts used 23 players, including recent signings Dicker – the squad's over-age player this season – and Jeremy Sarmiento, recruited from Benfica earlier this month.

And it was Sarmiento who created the only goal in the 15th minute when his shot was parried by Worthing keeper Harrison Male and Ella was on hand to score from the rebound.

Crofts made 11 changes at the break and also brought on Samy Chouchane for the last 15 minutes. Male continued to be the busier keeper, denying Matt Everitt and Lorent Tolaj in the space of five minutes midway through the second half.