Horsham boss not ‘heartbroken’ by FA Trophy loss at Haringey Borough

Charlie Harris missed a penalty in the FA Trophy defeat. Photo by Derek Martin.Charlie Harris missed a penalty in the FA Trophy defeat. Photo by Derek Martin.
Charlie Harris missed a penalty in the FA Trophy defeat. Photo by Derek Martin.
Dominic Di Paola insisted he wasn’t ‘heartbroken’ following Horsham’s 3-0 defeat at Haringey Borough in the first qualifying round of the FA Trophy on Saturday.

Goals from Michael Ademiluyi, Chiduben Onokwai and Jorge Sambu were enough to see Borough into the next round.

Di Paola said: “I wasn’t massively disappointed, I just think the game turned on a decision in the first half, the push on Gary Charman, which they then scored from.

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“From there we were a bit unfortunate with the free-kick which bounced off his face and you go in 2-0 down.

“It was a tricky day, in tricky conditions and we were a bit off the pace and that’s what you get so, no, I wasn’t massively disappointed.

“I wasn’t heartbroken, and I wasn’t too disheartened at all. It was just one of those games where everything was geared their way. “A bit of a reaction from (Haringey after) the Yeovil game and the support and all of that, it was probably going to be their day.”

Jerry O’Sullivan had the best chance for the Hornets on six minutes but his driven shot was well saved by Valery Pajetat who was equal to it.

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It was Borough who took the lead on 23 minutes as Ademiluyi got the wrong side of Steve Metcalf who then found space in the area to roll the ball home.

The hosts made it 2-0 just before the break as a free-kick was struck against the wall and fell perfectly to Onokwai who slotted home.

Borough put the game beyond doubt ten minutes after the restart as Sambu finished off a lovely team move to finish in the right hand corner.

Horsham were awarded a penalty on 83 minutes when a Hornets strike was blocked by a Haringey hand.

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Charlie Harris stepped up only for his penalty to be superbly saved by Pajetat diving to his left.

Horsham barraged the Borough goal but Pajetat was equal to all of it as it finished 3-0.

Di Paola added: “I just didn’t think we created the chances that we needed to, there were a couple of half chances early on.

“We created some chances at the end but that was irrelevant anyway because the game was gone and when you’re 3-0 up you take the foot of the gas so that’s probably why we created some chances at the end.”

Horsham: Bentley, O’Sullivan, Metcalf, Brivio, Charman (Merchant 67), Mills, Newton, Dawson (Pamment 59), Smith, O’Toole (Harris 45), Harding Unused: Miles, Sparks

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