“Whitstable win wasn’t lucky,” says a relieved Horsham boss Simon Colbran

Striker Trevor McCreadie’s early goal - his first for the club - and a 90th minute own goal from Laurence Harvey booked ended what was an action-packed contest and saw The Hornets end a 14-match run without a win.

The hosts had a string of early chances either side of McCreadie’s fifth minute opener but then survived a number of late scares before sub Jamie Ampleford’s cross forced Horsham’s second, although boss Simon Colbran strongly refuted claims his side were fortune to take the points.

He said: “When that second goal went in right at the end it was a nice feeling to know we’d finally got that win. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time, and no disrespect to Whitstable but they are down there with us so we knew we had to win it, it really was a six-pointer.

“Obviously I respect everybody’s comments, they pay their money to watch and people see things differently but I’ve seen people say we were lucky last night and I completely disagree.

“The first 20 minutes we’ve hit the bar, their keeper has made massive saves, Trevor has had two more clear chances and Matt Simpson’s hit the bar.

“Yes they’ve done a similar thing in the last 20 minutes but if that was luck then we deserved it, we could have put the game out of sight in the first 20 minutes so they were lucky to still be in it by half-time.”

Colbran was also delighted to see young forward McCreadie get off the mark for the club just when he needs his attacking players to start scoring.

“Trevor is an excellent player, I see what he does in training and I think he just needed that first goal,” he said. “What makes a good striker is even if they miss a chance they’ll be there for the next one, and the next one and that’s what he’s done, he didn’t hide and still wanted to get on the ball.”

The vital win lifts Horsham above Walton Casuals after their defeat to Crawley Down the previous night. They now have a six-point cushion over bottom of the table Three Bridges and are two points above Casuals, with a game in hand over both.

This Easter weekend they have two local derbies, away at Crawley Down on Saturday and then home to Worthing on Bank Holiday Monday.