Horsham FC ‘could have played for hours’ without scoring in AFC Totton defeat
Horsham FC could have played for hours without scoring in their National League South defeat to AFC Totton.
That was the view of Hornets manager Dominic Di Paola after he watched his side go down 2-0 at home to the Stags on Saturday.
Tony Lee fired the visitors in front, rifling home from a corner a minute before half-time.
Totton’s opener came after Charlie Hester-Cook had passed up a glorious first-half opportunity to put Horsham ahead. The midfielder dragged his effort wide despite having Reece Myles-Meekums available to pass to.
Sub Ashley Clarke poked home Totton’s second on 79 minutes as the hosts asked in vain for an offside decision.
Di Paola said: “Up until the first goal, we were the better team – and then we weren’t. We were poor in the second half.
“We didn’t really have a lot about us. We had quite a lot of territory and possession but we never looked like we were going to score.
“I’ve got no complaints about the result, but the boys are disappointed – probably too disappointed.
“There wasn’t a massive difference between the two teams on the day, I just think they scored a goal at a really good time just before half-time. And just as we were getting our tails up in the second half, they got the one to kill us off.
“We could have played for hours and we would never have scored. We had no quality in the final third on the day, which can happen, but we need to come up with a way to create more chances.
“We should have been 2-0 up before the first goal. We did create some opportunities in the first half, but we didn’t take them. Even late on Sham [Fenelon] has hit the crossbar.”
Di Paola admitted that drawing at Westfield in the FA Cup the previous weekend impacted Horsham’s performance.
The stalemate in Surrey meant the Hornets had to tackle a midweek replay, while Totton had a full week off after dispatching Torquay 2-0 at home.
Di Paola added: “It looked like they’d their feet up during the week and we had a game on Tuesday – but that’s on us. I changed the team, I put players in.
“We didn’t get the job done against, respectfully, a team from a couple of divisions below. We had to exert a lot of energy on Tuesday, and some of that impacted our performance on Saturday.”
Horsham host Folkestone Invicta in the FA Cup third qualifying round this Saturday. You can read a full preview to this tie later in the week on sussexworld.co.uk/sport.
Meanwhile, the Hornets will begin their Sussex Senior Cup title defence at Whitehawk. The tie must be played by Wednesday, October 8.