Horsham FC told to 'dig deep' as play-off battle goes to the wire

That’s the view of manager Dominic Di Paola after the Hornets missed their chance to confirm a top-five finish in midweek.

An excellent 3-1 win at second-placed Chatham on Saturday left Horsham needing just a point to secure their play-off place.

But a surprise 1-0 defeat at relegation-threatened Cheshunt on Tuesday means the Hornets will have to get a result at home to already-relegated Concord this weekend to clinch a play-off berth.

Di Paola said: “We’re at home, and we’ve got no excuses. We’ve got to get a result, and we all know that.

“The boys have been incredible this year. Cheshunt was the 59th game of our season.

“They need to dig deep and go and get a result on Saturday that will give us the point we need to step into those play-offs. We need boys that are bang in form on the pitch.

“If we’d had been offered this in December we’d have taken it, so it’s just about us getting a win on Saturday. That’s what we’re all hoping for.”

Goals from Reece Myles-Meekum, Dan Ajakaiye and Jack Mazzone helped Horsham to three points at Chatham.

Di Paola said: “We were on it. We played really, really well. It’s what we can do on our day.

“We were very good at everything that we did. We were very clean in terms of our passing, we kept the ball well, created some chances, and scored some good goals. It was a fully merited win.”

But Di Paola was less enthused by Horsham’s performance at fourth-from-bottom Cheshunt in midweek.

A frustrating evening was compounded by the late sending off of Hornets’ right-back Lee Harding.

Di Paola added: “It was a bit of a flat performance from us really, and there was no real reason for it. We knew there was a lot of importance to the game and knew that if Whitehawk could do us a favour – which they did – we could have capitalised, but we failed to do that.

“We looked slightly off, especially first half. I thought we were really poor. In the second half we were half-decent, but couldn’t create enough.”