Horsham FC boss hails biggest National League South victory to date – but cup win is forgettable

The ruthless Hornets served up a Halloween treat for their supporters as they stormed to a 5-0 win at Farnborough on Saturday.

The visitors led 2-0 at half-time through James Hammond’s free kick and Greg Luer’s tidy finish. George Cox’s rocket, Reece Myles-Meekums’ close-range effort and Harvey Sparks’ ferocious strike sealed Horsham’s biggest step two win in the second half.

The thumping victory moved the Hornets up to tenth – and within three points of the play-off places – going into this Saturday’s home clash with AFC Totton.

Di Paola told us: “We’ve had a Jekyll & Hyde week really, but Saturday was brilliant. We played really, really well. There were some excellent goals and it was a brilliant performance.

“Even when they put us under the cosh at times, we defended really well and looked like a good unit. Collectively there were some really good performances.

“It was a much-needed win against one of the teams near us. It’s amazing because if you get the second or third goal, with the way we play, then the game becomes quite easy. What’s been the challenge in this league, and will continue to be the challenge, is getting those second or third goals to take the game away from the opposition.

“We had such good support on Saturday. It’s such a nice thing when you have a good performance and that level of support. I could see how happy they were.”

Horsham went ahead at Farnborough in the 43rd minute courtesy of a delicious Hammond free-kick. Luer then added the Hornets’ second on the stroke of half-time after good work from Charlie Hester-Cook to win the ball deep in Farnborough territory.

Cox made it three with a ferocious 25-yard piledriver on 74 minutes before Myles-Meekums poked home from close-range for Horsham’s fourth four minutes later.

Substitute Sparks then added the icing on the cake in second half stoppage time to confirm the Hornets’ biggest ever National League South win.

And Di Paola revealed Sparks’ goal was his pick of the bunch.

He added: “Harvey’s was my favourite just because of the way we pulled them all over the pitch and then attacked the space. That’s the kind of thing you look at and work on in training.

“It doesn’t always happen like that. It was nice to pull them all the way back into our half, go all the way back through the pitch, come outside where we’ve created space and go and score. It was a good way to win the game.

“Coxy’s was an absolute rocket of a goal. I really enjoyed Greg’s goal after Cookie [Hester-Cook] won the ball high. Meeky [Myles-Meekums] created havoc on the edge of the box which allowed Hammo [Hammond] to score a free-kick.

“The bundled goal was a bit different, but it was a good day at the office really.”

But Horsham were far less fluent away to SCFL Premier outfit Pagham in the Sussex Senior Cup on Tuesday evening.

A heavily-rotated Hornets team left it late to edge past the Lions 1-0, Ashley Nadesan tapping home with just three minutes remaining after Pagham’s goalkeeper dropped a high-hanging cross at his feet.

Di Paola said: “The highlight for me was that the game finished. It was an awful game of football played on an awful pitch.

“The pitch levelled the game, which meant we couldn’t play any real football. That’s not an insult to Pagham. When I was at East Preston, me and another guy used to jump on the mower and try and make the pitch as nice as possible back in the day. At Climping, when it got to October and the pitch was like a cow field. I’m not being a snob, I just think it’s very difficult to do anything on a bad pitch.

“There were a fair few performances that I was really unhappy with – and I said that to the boys at half-time. I thought some of them were bad – not because we haven’t gone and rattled 20 past them, but because of the general application and lack of desire.

“We mixed and matched it. You have to demonstrate why you’re not playing. It doesn’t mean you have to play well, you need to have the right attitude.

“People don’t need to impress me with goals or unbelievable play, I want players to give everything. I felt in the first half, in particular, we were slow in everything we did. We didn’t press, we didn’t sprint, we played within ourselves.

“A few didn’t do themselves any favours in the first half. In the second, we were slightly better. I thought Niall McManus was good, I thought Jack Brivio had a good second half, but not many of them came out with a great deal of credit.

“I’m glad we got through and got a goal late on. It was a tough night, frustrating night, an awful game of football. Anyone who came to watch that just didn’t see any real quality in the whole game.”

The victory at Pagham was Di Paola’s 300th as Horsham manager – but the boss was ambivalent about the milestone.

He added: “When I get to 1,000 games I will be quite proud of that one. I think that could be next season if we carry on, which I think is quite an achievement – but those kinds of milestones don’t really mean anything to be honest. I didn’t know anything about it.

“But that’s 300 good days in 12 years. We’ve almost got a year of good days!

“I personally don’t really look at stuff like that. It doesn’t make a lot of difference to me. When we get to the 1,000th game I will crack open a cider and wonder what I’ve done with my life!”

The Hornets have no fresh injury concerns ahead of Saturday’s home encounter with 18th-placed AFC Totton.