Di Paola toasts four-point week as Horsham FC close in on top five with excellent results at Bishop’s Stortford and Brightlingsea

Horsham held top-of-the-table Bishop’s Stortford to a 1-1 draw on Saturday before beating basement club Brightlingsea Regent 2-0 on Tuesday evening.

The Hornets, who were missing top goalscorers Jack Mazzone, Dan Ajakaiye and Lucas Rodrigues, led the leaders at half-time thanks to Shamir Fenelon’s early strike, but Ryan Charles levelled in the second half for Bishop’s Stortford.

Di Paola said: “I think we should have played better. They were pretty good on the day, but we were just okay.

“We were missing a lot of our attacking threat, so we had to set up a bit differently and be a little bit harder to beat.

“In the first half they put the ball in the box a lot, but Taylor [Seymour] didn’t have a huge amount to do.

“We scored a good goal, and we potentially could have had a soft penalty but it wasn’t given - probably rightly so by the ref.

“Second half they came on really strong, and they definitely deserved their goal. I was a bit disappointed with the goal that we gave away, but they then had a couple of better chances that they didn’t take.

“We can be pleased with a point. It [Bishop’s Stortford] is a very tough place to go. They don’t lose many games up there.

“We went up there with three of our top goalscorers unavailable, and with much less pace, with Lucas and Dan not around.

“But it was a really good, battling point. They’ll go very close to winning it [the league] I should think.”

Horsham moved up to ninth in midweek as second half goals by Charlie Hester-Cook and Harvey Sparks secured victory at managerless Regent.

The win extended the Hornets’ unbeaten away run to six games.

Di Paola added: “I got it wrong in the first half with our shape, and how I wanted them to play. That was my bad.

“We had three-and-a-half hours on a coach and then some would have had another hour to get to the coach. It’s a lot of travel. Some would have started work a lot earlier to finish early.

“In the first half we were a little bit sloppy in our play, and then in the second half we did enough.

“But as I said, I didn’t really help the situation. We didn’t get our shape right, but we corrected it at half-time and found our balance.

“They’re battling for their lives, their manager has just gone. I had a report from the Haringey game on Saturday [which Brightlingsea lost 6-1] and I don’t think they battled for their lives. But last [Tuesday] night they did and they played some good stuff at times.

“You have to respect everyone in this league. I said it to the boys, and I had a bit of a moan at half-time, it’s a scrappy, physical, tricky league, and if you don’t turn up you’re going to have a tough time no matter who you play.

“We brought Tucky [Doug Tuck] on at half-time, changed the shape, and we looked much better.”

Mazzone and Rodrigues will miss Horsham’s home game against Haringey Borough on Saturday through injury. The Hornets visit Herne Bay on Tuesday evening.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​