Horsham FC boss Dominic Di Paola: Isthmian Premier will be so strong this season

The Hornets enjoyed a historic 2023-24 campaign, reaching the Isthmian Premier play-off semi-finals and second round of the FA Cup, as well as lifting the Sussex Senior Cup for the first time in 38 years.

And ahead of this weekend’s curtain raiser at Hastings, Di Paola admitted the division had got harder since last season, pointing to the league’s strength in depth.

He said: “The league has gotten tougher, I think. You haven’t got a Hornchurch [who won the Isthmian Premier by 21 points last season], but in general the league will be stronger.

“Bognor will be stronger this year, the teams coming into it will add strength, Whitehawk seem to be making some good signings, Dulwich will be stronger for the experience, Billericay have made some really good signings - they look to me like favourites to win the title.

“Chatham are stronger, if not better, than last year, so the league has got good again - but it’s always good. It’s a tough league.

“With it this year, we’re not going to know until maybe October how it [the race for promotion and relegation] will shape up. The depth in the league is so strong. There isn’t really anyone who is appalling, and that’s annoying!

“There were no basket cases last season. Sometimes you get clubs going bust or they pull the budget and they play the kids, but there are no dummies in this league.

“We just want to be in the mix again. I would be really happy with that.”

Six teams have come in to the division for this season - Dover Athletic and Dartford, both relegated from National League South, promoted trio Chichester City, Cray Valley Paper Mills and Bowers & Pitsea, and Hendon, transferred from the Southern League.

Assessing the league’s new boys, Di Paola said: “[Dover] are historically a big club. They’ve played in the National League.

“You can run a very successful ship in the Isthmian Prem on a very different pay scale, so I don’t think they have to worry too much in that respect. I think they’ll be decent.

“I think Dartford are in the top two or three favourites for the title.

“Hendon had it tough in the Southern Prem but it’s tough level, and they’ve always been fine and done really well at times. They’ll now be able to recruit from a different set of players because they’ve had to get boys who were willing to travel to Timbuktu in that league!

“Bowers & Pitsea we know a bit about. They’ve had the rebound from going down. I’ve always thought it was a tough place to go. Bowers have a really tight and compact pitch.

“I didn’t think they were one of the worst teams in it [the Isthmian Premier] when they went down. They just had a bad start and couldn’t quite get themselves going, so they’ll be fine.

“Chichester play lovely football. I know Dabba [Darin Killpatrick, Chi City coach] really well. They’ll be really hard to beat and well set up. They’ve got some good, talented youngsters who will stand them in good stead.

“Cray should be in the mix. On paper, they had an Isthmian Prem team last year. I fully expect them to be perhaps not as big spenders as a Chatham, but a team that will come up and be straight in the mix for the play-offs.”

Following Saturday's opener at Hastings, the Hornets entertain Chichester on Tuesday (7.45pm).