Inability to see out games ‘a common theme this season’ for Horsham FC

The Hornets snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as two goals in the final four minutes saw Chelmsford City secure a scarcely believable National League South win.

Horsham were 2-1 up with 86 minutes gone, but Harry Barbrook drew the visitors level before Jamie Odegah struck with a minute to go to spark delirium among the travelling fans.

The Hornets trailed early but Shamir Fenelon equalised on 64 minutes before James Hammond fired Horsham in front from the spot.

The loss saw the Hornets drop out of the play-off places into ninth.

Di Paola said: “We’ve got a couple of things our side wrong, but bringing on someone like Lyle Taylor really helps [Chelmsford].

“We just didn’t see out the last 15 minutes of the game. It’s been a common theme this season. We can only do so much to impact that really. We keep going on about the same things, and we’ve analysed it to the ends of the earth.

“Some of it is fatigue. You put a lot in and the boys were tiring, and when they tire they do silly things. They don’t perhaps have the same thought process.

“But some of it was just rubbish really. Certain players are doing the same things all the time. Some players have had a good chance to stake a claim but they haven’t taken it. People can have no complaints if they don’t play because they haven’t done it for six weeks.

“But saying that, we got ourselves into a really good position. Lucas [Rodrigues] and Sham [Fenelon] came on and did very well and got us to 2-1, and then it’s a case of getting a point at the bare minimum – but we did some poor things in the last 15 minutes and it cost us.

“They [Chelmsford] are another half-decent side but I thought we merited something from the game. I actually thought we did quite well in general, but it was just a case of fine margins.”

Horsham’s recent injury crisis has been well-documented – and Di Paola admitted it was ‘no coincidence’ that the Hornets’ dip in form had coincided with the continued absence of vital players.

He added: “We’ve hit a bit of a period where we’ve got key players missing. I feel like managers always make excuses when things don’t go well, but we’re always going to struggle without Isaac [Philpot], [Charlie] Hester-Cook, [Rhys] Murphy, Lee Harding.

“We cruised through it a little bit in November, with a few knocks and nothing too major, but December has hit us hard. It’s hard to roll the dice when you’ve not got too many options to change things up.

“We’re desperate for players to come back. We need our better players on the pitch. Hester-Cook has been out for about four or five weeks, Lee Harding similar. The positive was Isaac got a few minutes [against Chelmsford] and we’ve got a week’s training now. We missed Isaac.

“We haven’t got the luxury of missing three or four of our best players. It’s no coincidence that when we’ve not had those players in the last five to six weeks we’ve barely won a game. That tells you all you need to know.”

Horsham travel to National League side Scunthorpe United this Saturday in the fifth round of the FA Trophy – and you can read a full preview to the tie online tomorrow at sussexworld.co.uk/sport.

Meanwhile, the Hornets’ home National League South clash with Bath City – originally scheduled for this weekend – has been moved to Tuesday, March 17.