Horsham wary of Bowers & Pitsea after FA Cup exploits

The Bowers reached the fourth qualifying round of this year’s competition, eventually falling to FA Cup giant-killers Chichester City.

The run, however, has come at a cost. The Essex-based side have seen their bright start to the league campaign dwindle, and they currently sit second-from-bottom with eight points from ten games.

Bowers & Pitsea can be heartened by the fact that they have four games in hand on place-above Brightlingsea Regent as they look to propel themselves up the BetVictor Premier Division.

Bowers, like the Hornets, were promoted to the Premier Division after an impressive 2018/19 season.

The Len Salmon Stadium outfit topped the Bostik North Division last term, racking up an impressive 92 points – 12 points more than place-below Aveley.

Di Paola expects Saturday’s opponents to be ‘keen to pick up results’ in their bid to climb up the table.

He said: “They smashed the Ryman North last year and they had a really good start to the season.

“I think their FA Cup run may have distracted them slightly from the league.

“All that means is, now they’re out of the cups, they can focus on their league campaign.

“They were in the top seven or eight in the first six weeks so I would expect them to be a good side.

“They’re going to be keen to pick up results.”

Horsham return to The Camping World Community Stadium for the first time since their 1-1 draw against Cray Wanderers on October 22.

After a fortnight away from their new ground, Di Paola admitted it was ‘going to be nice to be at home.’

He added: “It feels like we haven’t been at home for months.

“It’s only been two weeks but it feels much longer.

“We’ve got a couple more away games after that going into December but it’s going to be nice to be at home.”