200 up! Horsham FC boss lauds fan favourite after reaching milestone

​The 26-year-old made his 200th Hornets appearance in Saturday’s 2-0 National League South defeat at Torquay United.

The midfielder has become a firm terrace favourite since joining Horsham, initially on loan from Dorking Wanderers, in August 2021.

Hester-Cook has had a trophy-laden career with the Hornets, lifting the Isthmian Premier title, back-to-back Sussex Senior Cups and Sussex Community Shields, the Velocity Trophy and the Isthmian League Charity Shield, as well the 2023-24 supporters’ player of the season award.

Di Paola said: “He’s my favourite sort of player. He’s a lovely lad as well. His family are really lovely and I get on with them all.

“He’s been good. I think we suit him and I think I suit him. It’s hard to describe but I get Cookie. A lot of people probably wouldn’t get him! I think it all works between him and us.

“If we’d had him and Lucas [Rodrigues] and Meeky [Reece Myles-Meekums] and Lee Harding for longer this season, I think we’d have done even better and might have been looking at a semi-final of the FA Trophy.

“This is football. Not everything goes your way unfortunately. I wish it did!

“He’s a great lad. The boys love him. He’s got a lot of really good friends in this team.

“It’s a good achievement to get to 200. He’s had injury problems the whole time he’s been with us, so to still get to 200 games is really, really good.

“I just want to get him there or thereabouts before the season’s out so at least he can play to his potential. Three months out has knocked the stuffing out of him.

“We’ve got a lot of them approaching the 200 mark. Lucas Rodrigues has got two [more games] to get to 200. It’s an amazing achievement for a group of players to get to that many games.”

Horsham host Hester-Cook’s former club Dorking tomorrow before venturing to Farnborough on Easter Monday.

And you can get Di Paola’s thoughts ahead of the Hornets’ Easter weekend online tomorrow at sussexworld.co.uk/sport.