Short joined the Evo-Stik League Division One South club during the close season as assistant to the then manager Scott Rickards. But he found himself thrown in at the deep end for a tough start to the new campaign at highly fancied Leek Town, followed by Tuesday's home clash with last season's beaten play-off finalists Mickleover Sports, when Rickards resigned two days before the start of the league season.
With a side made up of players largely recruited from the lower leagues, perhaps predictably Rainworth suffered a 6-0 beating at Leek. But with a couple of changes a battling, resilient performance against Mickleover brought a deserved first point of the season despite conceding two early goals.
Following the Leek game Short brought in experienced coach Dean Mitchell as his new number two, and several new players were added to the squad, one of whom - midfielder Gary Atkins from Teversal - went straight into Tuesday's starting line-up, while promising duo Lewis Bingham and Sam Stretton, from Central Midlands side Thoresby CW, both made their debuts from the bench.
Speaking after Tuesday's game, Short hailed the much improved performance, saying: "I'm proud of the lads tonight. They are learning that to survive at this level they have to work hard and stick together through a tough opening programme. If they do that they will earn results like this one against a very good Mickleover side.
"The players had learned the hard way on Saturday that mistakes at this level get punished, and that was re-emphasised when we conceded two soft early goals tonight.
"But they are cottoning on that when you do fall behind you keep on doing what you do best, and you have a good chance of finding your way back into the game as we did. After those two early blips we defended really well against a lively side, not just as a back four but as a team. That was pleasing from our point of view and we deserved to get something out of the game."
On new coach Mitchell, Short added: "I've known him for more than 10 years, we played together at Sutton Town, he's completed all his coaching badges and played at a good level. He was a former Nottingham Forest youngster, he has coached at Barnsley and has run his own coaching school.
"He came through with me when I took the manager's job at Sutton, we've had success together and he thrives on the type of environment we have here. So we hope that before too long we will be able to enjoy similar success here to that we had with Sutton."
Short concluded: "It was a very good point tonight, although we're not getting too excited about it. If we can show the same work rate, the same ethic, and the same mental and physical strength, at home to Lincoln United on Saturday and beyond, while cutting out the individual errors, then we should be able to start picking up a few wins."