Boss shoulders blame as Horsham FC suffer at home

A threadbare Hornets side – who were reduced to ten men late on – were beaten 4-1 at home by the Generals on Saturday.

Horsham, who were without injured quartet Sam Howes, Lee Harding, Danny Barker and Reece Myles-Meekums, trailed to Alex Lafleur’s 28th minute goal.

Jamie Yila struck back for the hosts on 48 minutes – but Chesham needed just five minutes to restore their lead.

Sub Marco Haigh’s 88th minute red card then preceded a Horsham collapse. Hisham Kasimu made it 3-1 in the fourth minute of second half stoppage time before Lafleur added his second, Chesham’s fourth, four minutes later.

The Hornets have dropped to 15th in the table.

Di Paola told the County Times: “I think they were the better team. They warranted the win. We weren’t very good but the scoreline looks completely different because of the sending-off.

“The sending-off was a stupid tackle really, it was a mis-timed one, but the result is on me. I didn’t really change anything after the sending-off. I took the view that we’d try to get a goal back. We were pretty much playing with a front four at that stage and they just picked us off.

“I thought it was worth giving it a go. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but we weren’t in a good place by that point physically.

“I probably should have shut up shop and made it harder to break us down, but we needed that other goal. It’s pointless to lose 2-1 so you may as well lose 4-1 – but we were gone by then anyway.

“It was a tough day at the office. The goalkeeper [Will Heater] got injured in the warm-up. He ended up playing but he couldn’t kick the ball. It was a bit of a sorry state of affairs really. It was a bit Sunday League having a centre-half having to take all his kicks – and our defenders couldn’t pass back to him.”

Saturday also saw the return of Horsham hero Dan Ajakaiye. The forward, who initially departed the club in June 2025, came on as a 72nd minute substitute as the Hornets chased an equaliser after going 2-1 down.

Di Paola was delighted to have the 29-year-old back in the fold – but stressed the striker hadn’t returned to Horsham on a permanent basis.

He explained: “He’s in between clubs. He’s not ‘back, back’ – I want everyone to know that. He’s kind of helping us at the moment.

“He played for me on Saturday and did me a real favour. He’s been training with us, because I love Dan.

“I asked him when he was without a club what he was doing, and he said he was waiting for opportunities. He said he was talking to a couple of clubs, so I said if you want to stay fit and train you’re welcome too.

“We don’t fall out with too many boys when they leave. We tend to stay on good terms with players, so he’s come back and trained. He obviously enjoys it at the club, so I asked him if he wasn’t sorted if he fancied being part of a squad.

“Good on Dan for coming in to help us – and I’ve had another boy message me this week who’s said similar. It kind of validates that we’ve got such a good group and people like being part of it.”

Horsham’s attention now turns to an FA Cup second qualifying round clash away to Walton & Hersham this Saturday – and Di Paola said the tie was a ‘double-edged sword’ for the club.

He added: “We’ve got a very small squad and the more games we play, the more chances we have of the whole squad crumbling – but equally we need the money.

“Every cup game we had last year impacted our league campaign because we had such a small squad.

“The football club needs the money and there is money in the FA Cup. You can make a few quid so it’s a real tough one.

“With a 16-man squad you’d probably do away with the cups and try and stay in the league – but we do need the finances.

“We’ve got to give it our best shot on Saturday. It’s a funny old time at the moment but we will muddle through.”

Horsham have no fresh injury concerns, but Howes, Harding and Myles-Meekums are likely to remain absent.