‘It was shambolic’ – Horsham FC start ‘soul-searching’ after defeat to Dartford

After a comfortable home victory over struggling Cheshunt on Saturday, the Hornets suffered a 3-1 home defeat to the fourth-placed Darts on Tuesday evening.

Charlie Hester-Cook’s thunderbolt fired Horsham ahead on 23 minutes, but the visitors needed less than a minute to equalise through Samir Carruthers.

Olly Box made it 2-1 Dartford on 70 minutes before Denzelle Olopade extinguished hopes of a Hornets comeback with eight minutes remaining.

The loss to the Darts leaves Horsham 13th in the Isthmian Premier, albeit just five points off the play-off places.

Di Paola said: “We were dominant until we scored. We scored a great goal, but we didn’t use our heads and we allowed them to score almost from kick-off.

“It was shambolic, collectively. There was no thought around what we needed to do after scoring.

“We were dominant again until half-time, and in the second half we came out and started well - but some kamikaze play, where we committed too many numbers forward, and some appalling defending put them ahead.

“It’s hugely frustrating that’s how the game panned out. We were really good in the first half. Brivs [Jack Brivio] has put one over the bar, Dicko [Chris Dickson] has had a one-on-one, Sham [Fenelon] has had a one-on-one, we’ve had a shot that we’re pretty confident went over the line from distance, but there’s nothing you can do about that.

“I think in general, we were fine in the first half apart from a really poor goal that we conceded. In the second half, we gave them a goal and after that we were non-existent in the game. We were so poor.

“We’ve got to do some soul-searching as a group. We’ve fallen down on the wrong side of too many of these games now, so we have to have a look at where we’re going wrong so we don’t keep on repeating the same things.

“Everyone, myself included, needs to take a look at some of the results. Losing Hammo [James Hammond] and Dan Ajakaiye has impacted us in the last six weeks, and we’re seeing that in games a little bit.

“When we get a couple of wins, the world feels rosy - but when we get a couple of poor results you feel like it’s game over.

“We’ve got a relatively straightforward Christmas in terms of games. It’s Saturday, midweek, Saturday, midweek, so it’s not too bad.

“We’ll go and attack those games and if we’ve got anything about us as a team we’ll get some points over that period.”

Chris Dickson plundered a hat-trick – and missed a penalty – as Horsham beat Cheshunt 3-1 at the weekend.

And Di Paola was pleased with a ‘pretty good’ Hornets performance against the Ambers.

He added: “We played very well after the first 15 minutes. We shook the Torquay trip out in the first 15 as we were a bit sloppy.

“But after that we played well and created lots of chances. We were very dominant but we conceded a crap goal which kept them alive mentally.

“We then went up and scored and could have had a couple more. It was a steady league performance. We were pretty good.”

The Hornets visit ninth-placed Canvey Island this Saturday.