‘Really good reaction’ – Victory’s ideal in a tough week for Horsham FC
Dominic Di Paola reflected on a mixed week for Horsham FC – and praised his players for a midweek victory which ended their winless run.
The Hornets lost late on to Tonbridge Angels after a horrific injury to captain Jack Brivio before striking at the death against Bath City to secure their first National League South win since mid-February.
Ethan Sutcliffe’s stoppage-time goal for Tonbridge on Saturday consigned the Hornets to a third scoreless league defeat in a row – but the match was overshadowed by a serious head injury to skipper Brivio.
Di Paola said: “It felt like an end-of-season type game. Neither team had anything to play for.
“We’d not scored recently and we looked a bit cagey in front of goal, but we had some really good chances. I didn’t feel that they had any but they scored from a dead ball late on. It was two toothless teams really.
“I didn’t really put too much thought into the game to be honest. I was running around trying to find his [Brivio’s] dad after I’d been sent off.
“He spent six hours in A&E with a CT scan and stitches and that was where I was with it. I wasn’t paying much attention towards the end of the game.
“It was another loose, cheap goal that we’ve given away but it did feel like an end-of-season game with not a lot on it for either team.
“We struggled to express ourselves but the personnel dictated that a little bit as well.”
But Horsham bounced back against ten-man Bath on Tuesday to claim their first league success since February 21.
Greg Luer’s header gave home side Horsham a 52nd minute lead. The Hornets had the chance to double their advantage from the spot soon after but Rhys Murphy saw his spot-kick saved, and in the aftermath Bath’s Joe Raynes was sent off.
The Romans scored a penalty of their own to draw level but super-sub Charlie Hester-Cook headed home with two minutes to go to secure a late victory for the hosts.
Di Paola continued: “We had a really good reaction. We should have won by a lot more.
“We had a lot of chances but the keeper has had an absolute worldie. He’s made three or four brilliant stops.
“I said to the boys at half-time, we don’t have anything to be cagey about. We’re not going down, we’re not chasing down the play-offs, so there’s no real pressure. When boys play with pressure, often it impacts things.
“When you’ve lost a few, maybe you’re waiting for the next awful thing to happen. We’ve had a lot of that since December – someone’s got injured or someone’s been carried off the pitch or a silly mistake has cost us. They’re waiting for that bad thing to happen instead of just going and playing the game.
“I thought we played some really nice attacking football. We created more chances than in the previous five [games]. We were well worthy of the win.
“I think their goalkeeper put in the best performance I’ve seen all season. He made some unbelievable saves but it’s good that we could finally get that win.”
James Hammond let Murphy take over spot-kick duties on Tuesday night – only to see the former Arsenal and Dorking Wanderers striker fluff his penalty against Bath.
And Di Paola admitted it was a ‘poor decision’ to let Murphy take the spot-kick.
He added: “Murphs [Murphy] wanted a goal and strikers need a goal to get themselves going.
“He’s a very good technician, and you’d bank on him to score, but fate almost dictated that he wasn’t going to score. It was a poor pen but almost by ‘forcing a goal’, fate tells you that you aren’t going to be able to do it.
“He played really well and he had a good game. I don’t really care who scores in our team and I never have done. I’ve never really had a ‘top goalscorer’ in a team.
“If Hammo [Hammond] scores and we go 2-0 up, I think we end up winning 4-0 or 5-0. They [Bath] are a team low on confidence, so if we’d gone 2-0 up I think in the last 20 minutes they would have had to commit players forward and Murphs maybe gets his goal anyway.
“People make mistakes. I think it was a poor decision for him to take the penalty and I think it was a poor decision from the boys on the pitch to let him.
“We do talk about these things. Hammo’s the penalty taker and if he misses it’s my fault because I’ve dictated that he’s the penalty taker – but luckily we got away with it.”
Tomorrow sees the Hornets travel to 18th-placed Hampton & Richmond Borough in the National League South.
The two sides played out a goalless draw in the reverse fixture back in November.
Di Paola provided an injury update on several members of the first-team squad ahead of their visit to London.
And the Hornets boss revealed he wanted to see his side play with ‘a little bit more freedom’ after hitting their pre-season points target.
He said: “We might not be great Saturday. We weren’t great against Bath but we were better.
“Hopefully we can get 70 minutes from Cookie [Hester-Cook] and maybe 45 from Lee Harding. Lucas Rodrigues is getting there, Jack Bates will be back on Tuesday I think. You’ve then got three or four boys who can help the group.
“Shiloh [Remy] hopefully has just a contact [injury]. He caught the Horsham curse! He’s come to us and immediately got an injury, same with Jack Bates.
“We’ve got eight games to go. We’ll just go and enjoy them now and play with a little bit more freedom.
“We got to our target points total [52 points] 18 days later than I’d have liked. I would have liked to have done it in February but we’ve still done ever so well.
“Hats off to everyone for getting that target. We’ll now see how many we can get in the last eight and see where we finish in the table – and then get the barbecue out and enjoy the summer!”