FA Cup: Horsham FC undone by ‘seven or eight minutes of stupidity’ at Plymouth Parkway
Horsham FC were undone by ‘seven or eight minutes of stupidity’ at Plymouth Parkway in the FA Cup.
That was the view of manager Dominic Di Paola as, for the second year running, the Hornets exited the competition at the third qualifying round to a team in the division below.
Having contrived to throw away a two-goal lead at home to eventual Isthmian Premier champions Folkestone Invicta at this stage last season, Horsham were desperate to avoid a repeat at Southern League Premier South leaders Parkway.
And the Hornets looked well placed to advance at half-time. Ronan Silva’s goal, just after the half-hour mark, was just reward for an impressive first half Horsham display.
But Rio Garside equalised for the hosts on 68 minutes before Reece Thomson hit what proved to be Parkway’s winner three minutes later.
Di Paola told the County Times: “It was very similar to the Folkestone game last year where we were the dominant team – and then we had five, ten minutes of madness. I don’t know why, because in normal games it’s not really like us.
“We literally had seven or eight minutes of stupidity. They didn’t really trouble us all game. It was a bit of an end-to-end, scrappy game, but in general we were okay.
“We gave away a cheap ball on the halfway line from our free-kick and then they went down the other end and eventually got three corners in succession and scored from two of them. It was just lunacy.
“The chances we had, if we score the second I don’t think they come back into it. I think they’d accept their fate. But unfortunately we’ve missed a lot of chances this season, more than I can ever remember.
“That’s knocked us out of the FA Cup and we need the money. Above all else we wanted the money. That would have been important for us.
“I was just really frustrated with the performance but you could kind of see it coming a little bit. It was one of those games where we needed that second goal. It’s not about desire, but we didn’t have that killer edge, we haven’t had this season, to just skittle them and put them away.
“It was one of those games where you can’t quite put your finger on how you’ve lost, but you also get why you’ve lost if that makes sense.
“It’s not all doom and gloom, but it’s not like they had to do anything special to beat us. Not everything goes your own way but it was a disappointing way to go out of a key cup for us. We weren't troubled.
“The worse thing is, once it went to 1-1 we caved for a couple of minutes. If we could have just reset from there, a replay wouldn’t have been a bad thing – but before you know it, the game is gone.
“After they went 2-1 up we just didn’t have any answers at that stage which was disappointing.”
Horsham were left to rue their profligacy in front of goal in Devon. Jamie Yila somehow shot over from six yards early in the second half before Ashley Nadesan rattled the bar from close-range.
And Di Paola said he needed to find a solution to the Hornets’ goalscoring woes before Saturday’s home clash with league leaders Maidstone United.
He continued: “I watch them in training and they slot them home left, right and centre. We’re creating chances which usually doesn’t trouble me, because I think if we continue to create chances, sooner or later they’ll go in.
“This is a manager’s excuse this, but we’re a Ronan Silva one-on-one from a win at Folkestone, we’re an Ashley Nadesan one-on-one away from a win at Chelmsford, and we are a Nadesan and Yila mistake away from a comfortable win at Plymouth.
“The obvious comment, and you sound like a moron for saying it, is that goals affect the game. You also look at the Farnham game where we were so dominant, but it gets to a point where accepting it is not enough. Saying we’ve created a lot of chances today, we should have won – ‘should have’ means nothing. It doesn’t get you anything.
“You always catastrophise if you don’t win. When you win, you draw a line under the game and move onto the next one – but when you lose, you sit and watch it 300 times, analyse the goals, analyse the performance.
“People might think I’m mental, but we’re on exactly the same amount of points as we were this time last season – but we’ve played far better.
“We’re going to have to do a bit of a soul search this week and try to get to the bottom of why we keep missing these chances – whether it’s how we’re attacking, if our shape’s not right and whether it’s not conducive to scoring goals, or if it is just a little spell we’re having.”
Horsham hope to have Danny Barker back for the visit of Maidstone, but top scorer Greg Luer remains a doubt.