Horsham will benefit from settled squad next season says Di Paola

The Hornets have retained 12 members of last season’s team for the 2021-22 campaign.

Captain Jack Brivio, Gary Charman, Rob O’Toole, Will Miles, Harvey Sparks, Charlie Harris, Tom Day, Doug Tuck, Steve Metcalf, Danny Dudley, Chris Smith and Eddie Dsane have all agreed to return.

Brivio, O’Toole, Miles, Sparks, Harris, Metcalf and Smith all played key roles in securing Horsham’s promotion to the Isthmian Premier Division in 2019.

Charman, meanwhile, is just six games shy of breaking Mark Stepney’s long-standing appearance record of 614 games.

The Hornets have also added Brad Wilson, Tom Richards, Sam Howes and Alex Laing to their ranks.

Di Paola said: “Part of our problems last season were down to the fact we had to bring in loads of new players.

“We lost Alex Kelly, Harry Mills, Lea Dawson, Joe Shelley, all really key players from the team that did really well in our first year in the Prem.

“Whenever you have to bring players in or lose players you run the risk of having problems, just because you don’t know what the new ones are going to be like.

“The beauty of it is that Danny Dudley and Brad Wilson are like new signings but they’ve been with the group for six, seven months.

“Two of our signings are already part of the group and we know they fit in.”