Horsham FC boss Dominic Di Paola dazed by improbable final day Isthmian Premier title success
Dominic Di Paola admitted he was in a daze at full-time following Horsham FC’s improbable Isthmian Premier title victory.
The Hornets thrashed Hashtag United last Saturday on the final day of the season to overtake erstwhile league leaders Billercay Town on goal difference.
Horsham will now play at step two for the first time in their 144-year history.
Di Paola admitted the euphoric scenes at the end were a blur, with the Hornets boss revealing he couldn’t remember what he said to Tags manager Jay Devereux at full-time.
He said: “I was in a bit of a daze! I must admit, I’ve got to get the Hashtag manager’s number because I haven’t got a clue what I said to him at full-time!
“Normally I’m relatively good at remembering to be a good sport. I wasn’t rude to him, I just can’t remember speaking to him after the game!
“I will drop him a message because he’s had a bad day at the office, but I can’t really remember a huge amount.
“What’s amazing nowadays is that it’s all on video, but I did go into a little bit of a daze after the game.
“Now it’s kind of back to normality, but we’ve realised what we’ve achieved. To get up in four seasons is ridiculous given we lost those two in the middle to Covid, and we lost the whole team.
“During those 18 months when we didn’t do a lot, that group of boys - who were amazing - got a bit older and maybe lost their desire to kick on again. We had to rebuild again. This has probably been two years in the making.
“A lot of the boys stayed on last year because they wanted to put the play-offs right, and they’ve all got what they deserved. I hope they all give it a go next year, I really do. After working so hard to get there, they deserve to stay together and give it a go.
“Some of these boys have been with me for seven years. I’d love to see Lee [Harding] and Harvey [Sparks] and Brivs [Jack Brivio] play at that level and show what they can do. They thought they were untested at step three, but they’ve excelled so I’d love to see them give it a go and see what they can do at the next level.”
Horsham beat Hashtag United 5-1 to clinch the Isthmian Premier crown – and missed two penalties as well.
And 5-1 it had to be – because they took the title by a goal difference that was better by one goal over Billiercay, who beat Cheshunt 4-2.
Had Billericay scored one more goal – or if the Hornets had conceded one more – then Ricay would have been champions.
Di Paola joked his difficulty with numbers meant he ‘didn’t get too involved’ with the final day permutations – but the Horsham bench certainly made sure his players were kept informed.
He said: “I didn’t get too involved with it because, and everyone thinks I joke, but I really struggle with my maths!
“We had a couple of people in the gantry that were following it, and we had prepared a big spreadsheet with a load of formulas in it so that we could keep updating the scores on the bench.
“Every time something happened it triggered off some equations that came out the other side with what we needed to do. Instead of looking at Football Web Pages, which is what we normally do, we had something which was really clear where we didn’t have to think about it.
“I looked [at the Billericay score] at half-time, and then to be honest I just ignored it until it went to 4-2.
“I was fine all day, just focussing on us scoring as many as possible, but when it went to 4-2 you are feeling a bit sick. You’re thinking that a momentary lapse from Cheshunt means you’ve got to drag the boys off the floor for the play-offs.
“But with our performance and the way we played in that game, we deserved to win the league. Luckily, everything aligned on the day and we got our just desserts.
“There was a lot of shouting from the dugout. I kept having to shout at the boys to focus on the game.
“There was running commentary from Dicko [Chris Dickson], who is a character! He was up and down in the dugout, so I had to tell him to sit down so we had clear heads!
“We prepared brilliantly. As a management team, we were very clear on what we wanted to achieve.
“I did think we’d need five. All week I thought we needed five. Even when we were at different stages ahead I was thinking, we need five.
“Billericay have got a lot of firepower, they’re at home in front of a big crowd, similar scenario to us, so I thought we needed a big scoreline.”
Thoughts now turn to Thursday’s Sussex Senior Cup final against Littlehampton Town – and next season.
You can read Di Paola’s thoughts on the Amex showpiece and the 2025-26 National League South campaign in the coming weeks in the West Sussex County Times.