Horsham FC braced for a hectic January

Gary Charman expects his squad to cope with nine matches in January

The Hornets have seen their festive period completely washed out with their last three matches called off because of waterlogged pitches.

And their New Year’s Day fixture away at Worthing yesterday could have gone the same way, with a pitch inspection due in the morning.

Fixtures against Eastbourne Town (Saturday December 21), Three Bridges at home on Boxing Day and Leatherhead on Saturday (December 28) have all had to be rearranged.

The disruptions have come straight after Horsham finally returned to winning ways with victories over Guernsey and Crawley Down, though Charman hopes the impact on his team will be minimal.

“It has been very frustrating, especially after we picked up two good wins in a week,” the Hornets player/manager said. “But you expect this sort of thing at this time, games are called off and you have to carry on, it’s the same for everyone.

“I don’t expect it to stop our momentum, we had a really good two and a half hour training session with the lads on Saturday and they’re raring to go.”

Charman’s side were due to face Worthing away yesterday (New Year’s Day, report online at www.wscountytimes.co.uk). With first choice goalkeeper Michael Hunter and back up Lewis Blaney both away, Charman was considering giving assistant manager Rob Frankland, a former goalkeeper the nod if he failed to sign a stopper in time.

The game against the Rebels marks the start of what is now a relentless January with no fewer than NINE matches scheduled because of games rearranged.

“We have the squad to cope with it and at the moment everyone is fully fit,” Charman said. “We’ve gone from hardly any fixtures in January to it being chokka block, but I’ve got no problem throwing in any member of my squad.

“It will be a test but they’ve set the standard now in those two wins.”

The continued wet weather has caused disruptions to a large number of fixtures in the county, with a vast number of Sussex County League and West Sussex Football League games having to be rearranged.