Horsham FC boss: We are ready for the season to end

The Hornets put a huge dent in promotion-chasing Dorking Wanderers’ title credentials on Good Friday, running out 3-0 winners at home.

But Horsham were brought back down to earth on Monday, going down 2-0 at fifth-from-bottom Farnborough.

The Hornets sit 14th in the table having taken 55 points from 42 games.

Di Paola said: “I can’t wait for it to end now really. We’ve played around with things, mixed and matched, and I think I’m done with it now. We’re ready for a break.

“We’ve given everything we’ve got this season and the boys have given everything they’ve got.

“We’re on 55 points. We might get three or four more but we’ve given it everything we’ve got.

“I looked at it and we had four kids under 20 on the bench [over Easter] as well as a centre-half, a left-back and Jack Bates.

“You’re asking the same 13, 14 [players to perform] every week and they’ve done it brilliantly – but I think we’re all done in now. I don’t think we’ve got much more in the locker.

“We’re just looking forward to the summer. We’re ready for a refresh and a good break and to work out what we’re going to do moving forward.”

Goals from Leone Gravata, Charlie Hester-Cook and Bates earned the Hornets a well-deserved Good Friday victory over Dorking.

And Di Paola said: “I thought we were all right. I don’t think Dorking were where they can be. They didn’t really turn up, which was great for us.

“We’ve really struggled to score goals so scoring at the time we did, when they were just about getting on top, sucked the life out of them. That gave us a boost because we’ve not scored a lot recently.

“With chasing the title, maybe the pressure got to them a bit and they went more direct. That made it easy for us. We could just break on them.

“We were okay, I just don’t think our opponents were where they could be which really helped us on the day. That sort of played into our hands a little bit.

“But hats off to the boys. It’s not been easy at times but it’s really good that we gave the fans something to enjoy over the bank holiday weekend.”

Mason Bloomfield’s second half double then consigned Horsham to defeat at Farnborough on Monday.

And Di Paola added: “I thought we were okay. We had to take Lee Harding off and I made a mistake with Leone.

“Leone was ill on Thursday and we got a good 20 minutes out of him against Dorking – but he’d run out of gas. Because we don’t have a lot of players, I asked him to play against Farnborough and that probably wasn’t a good move.

“Brivs [Jack Brivio] was also not in a great way, but it’s just our small squad. Asking 13 senior players and some kids to play two games in four days is just not where we are at the moment.

“But I don’t think they were very good either. It was an awful game of football.

“I do tend to watch most of our games back, but there’s some I just think ‘better left on the hard drive, that one’! I don’t think in ten years I'm going to want to watch that one and reminisce.

“It was a bit of a bang average game but we can’t complain. The boys gave their all.

“We had some chances and we didn’t take them, which is the story of our season.

“We just have to accept that we’ll have a lot more of those days unless we get a better squad together and more squad depth.”

The Hornets entertain ninth-placed Maidstone United in their penultimate home game of the season this Saturday before travelling to Weston-super-Mare on Tuesday evening.

And you can get the latest team news ahead of Horsham v Maidstone online tomorrow at sussexworld.co.uk/sport.