Horsham FC boss: Players were gutted by late Dartford defeat – but I’m not too disheartened
Dominic Di Paola admitted his Horsham FC players were ‘gutted’ by their late defeat at Isthmian Premier promotion rivals Dartford – but he wasn’t ‘too disheartened’ by the result.
The Hornets’ title aspirations were dealt a sickening blow as the Darts struck twice at the death to win 2-1 on Saturday.
A rollercoaster first half saw Jake Elliott head the visitors in front on 24 minutes, before Lewis Carey superbly denied Callum Jones from the spot.
Horsham looked to be heading towards a vital victory, until George Whitefield and Eddie Dsane struck at the death to break Hornets hearts.
The result saw second-placed Dartford move four points clear of the third-placed Hornets, who now trail leaders Billericay Town by six points.
Di Paola said: “The players were gutted, but I’m kind of at peace with it.
“We had the opportunity to win, and put some distance between them at the end of the game, and we haven’t done that.
“If we’re honest, we haven’t done it three or four times against teams in the top five.
“I go back to [the 3-1 home defeat to] Dover in August. We had good opportunities to be two or three ahead before they scored.
“Same for Billericay away. We were so good in the first half against Billericay. We should have been three up really, but we didn’t capitalise.
“Unfortunately, we would have kept it a bit closer if we had won on Saturday, but Dartford are a good team. They’ve had a good season, they’ve got momentum like us.
“I don’t think we were very good in the second half, if we’re being honest. Even though we had a very good chance to score with [Reece] Meekums, I didn’t think we were very good - although they didn’t really trouble us until that final stage.
“There’s no point in beating yourself up about it, really. Sometimes it’s not your day - but against those top teams we’ve not capitalised on our dominance.
“If we went in 2-0 up and Meeky puts the icing on the cake after half-time, then there’s no chance of them coming back into it. But we haven’t done that enough, not recently.
“The Cray Valley game was the same. We won the game, but we weren’t able to kill them off. That’s something we need to address as a group, and we will do.
“But apart from that I was pretty pleased. I thought we defended well. Lew [Carey] has not really had a save to make.
“It’s not terminal. Not much has changed. Billericay have pulled away, but we expected them to pull away.
“The teams they’re playing, they’re not playing anyone in the top eight I don’t think. They won’t play anyone they fear, so it’s theirs to win.
“I’m not too disheartened. I think I’m the only one at the football club who isn’t! It was just unfortunate.
“We didn’t take our chances, and if we don’t take your chances in games, you’re always going to keep the opposition in the game.”
Di Paola admitted he didn’t say much to his players in the dressing room at full-time - choosing neither to ‘kick them’ or 'fake positivity’ - but he was certain they wouldn’t be affected by Dartford’s sucker punches.
He said: “The boys have got enough about them to not really take it to heart. That’s the key thing.
“I think the boys were down, but there was no point kicking them. Equally, there was no point in me being there trying to fake positivity. We just need to draw a line under it and move on.
“There’s plenty of football to play and we’ve got to carry on doing what we’ve been doing for the vast majority of the season.
“I said to them in the dressing room, we’ve been in all these games. All the top teams we’ve played this year, including Worthing, Maidstone, Torquay, Dorking, we’ve been well in the games.
“We’ve fallen down on the wrong side of a few. One or two earlier in the season were partly down to the FA Cup run, and in others recently things haven’t gone our way.
“That’s football. Some of the managers who’ve played us have probably gone, we’ve not taken our chances against them.
“I don’t think they [Dartford] deserved to win the game, if I’m honest. A point would have been a fair result, but that’s football. You’ve got to suck it up sometimes and take it on the chin.
“As I said on the way home, if we hadn’t conceded the second, you look at the table and you’d say it had been a positive day. The chasing pack all drew or lost, so it would have been a good day for us.
“I’ve done this a long time, and I had numerous games like this down the years. I always remember a 5-4 against Haywards Heath in the year we got promoted [to the Isthmian Premier].
“We absolutely battered them all game, but everything they hit went in. You’re left scratching your head at the end going, how have we lost 5-4?
“I’m not far off 900 games [managed], and I’ve had loads of experiences like this. It is what it is.
“I’ve watched back our games against Dartford, and we’ve created so many chances to win both games. That’s a positive in my mind. We just haven’t been able to get over the line.”
Horsham host 11th-placed Wingate & Finchley this Saturday.