Southend FA Trophy defeat a ‘missed opportunity’ for Horsham FC

It was another bumper crowd and grand occasion at the Fusion Aviation Community Stadium – the latest in a long line of big knockout ties against famous opposition.

And the Hornets pushed their former Football League opponents all the way in a narrow 2-1 loss.

It’s been a superb run in the FA Trophy for Horsham – their best ever – with a win at Scunthorpe United in the fifth round the highlight.

But Di Paola revealed not being able to choose from a fully fit squad left him with the feeling of what might have been.

He said: “When you’re talking about [Danny] Barker, [Reece] Meekums, Lucas [Rodrigues], Lee Harding, Leone [Gravata] and [Charlie] Hester-Cook [not being fully fit], that changes the whole configuration of the team.

“To lose six of what you’d say is your starting XI, the boys have done great, but it does feel like a missed opportunity.

“If we had two more of our squad I think it becomes a different game – but that’s football unfortunately.

“You need luck sometimes. Sometimes it deserts you and that was pretty much the case for us on Saturday. Six key players missing is just too much to bridge the gap.

“As the game went on it was there for the taking. We had good opportunities but, as I said, we didn’t have the right squad configuration sadly.

“It’s a sucker blow because we’ve done so well this season. We got to a quarter-final of a big competition and we gave a good account of ourselves – but it’s a case of what could have been.

“We did come close but I was just disappointed with the fitness tests. Lucas Rodrigues failed it, we only really got 25 minutes out of Meeks [Meekums] because he was struggling but we had to take a risk on one. We had to take a risk on Barks [Barker] too so we couldn’t play them all.

“If the game was played a week-to-10 days later we would have a fully fit Meeks, a fully fit Barks and Leone, and a fully fit Lucas Rodrigues.

“That’s where your timing is not right. We just couldn’t get them back on the pitch quick enough. That’s the only negative and sad thing for me.

“I only ever think about the negative ones, and this is one that’s going to haunt me. But it is what it is.”

Keenan Appiah-Forson put the division-above Shrimpers ahead after just two minutes before Jack Bridge added a second for the visitors 13 minutes later.

Isaac Philpot raised Hornets hopes by pulling one back on the stroke of half-time but Horsham could not find an equaliser.

Di Paola added: “It was a poor start. The first goal was a good goal, but Hammo [James Hammond] has got the ball caught under his foot. The pitch is not amazing which is why it’s coming up in the summer.

“The second one is really poor from us on the right – Jake [Elliott], Greg [Luer], Rick [Aguiar], and Strangey [Jack Strange] could all have gone up to the ball and stopped it.

“But after that I thought we did okay. They had a couple of chances but we had some really good chances. Murphs [Rhys Murphy] on another day gets a goal.

“But in terms of the game I thought it was relatively even. Their wide players caused us problems and they have a lot of quality, but I think we caused them problems.

“On another day, if our final ball is a bit better, we may hurt them a little bit more – but that’s been our problem all season.”

Horsham visit AFC Totton in the National League South this Saturday – and you can read Di Paola’s thoughts on the Hornets’ trip to Hampshire online tomorrow at sussexworld.co.uk/sport.