Hornets are ready to rest

Manager Dominic Di Paola is looking forward to a well-earned break at the end of a relentless and memorable season for Horsham FC.

Saturday’s Isthmian Premier encounter with Haringey Borough was the Hornets’ 56th game of the campaign.

Brilliant and historic runs in the FA Cup, Sussex Senior Cup and Velocity Trophy have provided plenty of highs for the Lardy Army, but Di Paola admitted these cup exploits might have hindered Horsham’s league aspirations.

He said: “We’ll be looking forward to the break. We’ve had a lot of games this year. It’s been a very, very relentless season with all the Saturday, Tuesday [games]. It feels like we’ve not been able to have a breather.

“We’ve still got four games to go. After this coming weekend that we’ll be at the finish line really.

“It’s been an up and down season. There’s been lots of massive highs but maybe the league form has suffered because of that.

“I feel like we should have been safe five, six games earlier than we were, which is frustrating, but the boys couldn’t have done much more.

“The boys have run themselves into the ground over the past 36 weeks. We had a long pre-season after Covid so they’ve played a hell of a lot of football. I think they’ll all be glad of the break.”

The Hornets confirmed their Isthmian Premier status with a convincing home 3-0 victory over Haringey on Saturday.

Horsham led at half-time thanks to Jack Brivio’s fifth minute goal. Shamir Fenelon’s near-post finish, created by a lung-busting run from Harvey Sparks, and Tom Kavanagh’s superb curling strike wrapped up a comfortable win for the hosts in the second half. It moved Horsham 13th, 15 points clear of the relegation playoff with three league fixtures left to play.

Di Paola added: “We played really well. I thought we were really good.

“All three goals were really well worked. We should have had a couple more, maybe two or three more, in the second half. Harvey has that in him, to make those driving runs, and it was a good finish by Sham.”

Horsham took on Margate in the Velocity Trophy final last night. See the Sport Sussex Twitter feed for more. They visit Corinthian-Casuals on Saturday before entertaining champions Worthing on Monday.