Hornets are Sussex’s FA Cup heroes – but long trip awaits
Horsham FC have done it! They’ve pulled off another FA Cup scalp and beaten Woking and are now off to League Two side Carlisle United in the first round.
They left it late - very late but Tom Kavanagh’s superb 87th minute free kick flew into the top corner to see off the National League visitors.
Being handed a long trip to the north west is not quite the dream draw the Hornets might have got, but with Carlisle struggling one of the bottom in the fourth tier, Dom Di Paola’s side might fancy their chances of another upset.
The draw was shown live on ITV and conducted by Kelly Smith and Wes Morgan.
It’s a mammoth 344 mile trip between the two clubs’ grounds and the journey takes just over five and a half hours, according to the AA route planner.
The match will be played between Friday, November 5 and Monday 8 and has every chance of being selected for coverage by the BBC or ITV.
On the day, Horsham were at heir best to see off Woking.
Not since the start of the Millennium have the Hornets defeated a side at least two divisions above them in the FA Cup – and few of the record crowd assembled inside the Camping World Community Stadium would have given them a chance before kick-off.
Dom Di Paola’s squad have made a habit of exceeding expectations in this year’s competition but when the news came through that Danny Dudley had contracted Covid and Doug Tuck was absent for family reasons, it looked as if the Hornets’ resolve would finally come to a valiant end.
Add to that only one fit striker and Dudley’s equally impressive defensive partner Alex Malins still sidelined, it was clear that it was going to take something quite extraordinary if Horsham were to progress to the first round for only the fourth time in their long history.
And something quite extraordinary it was, too, as Tom Kavanagh’s sublime 87th minute free-kick sent the home crowd into raptures as they began to dream of a trip to Sunderland, Ipswich Town, Bolton Wanderers or perhaps Portsmouth in the next round.
Horsham had to endure plenty of late pressure from the National League high-flyers but make no mistake, this was no ‘backs to the wall, hit them on the break’ performance by the home side who grew in stature as the match developed, might have scored earlier in the game, and fully deserved their moment of glory.
Cards manager Alan Dowson made clear his feelings of the importance of this tie when fielding a near first-choice eleven, packed not only with experience and pedigree but also height, strength, pace and power.
With the Cards quite literally stacked against them, the Hornets had two things in their favour – that incredible sense of camaraderie that had seen them overcome higher-places opponents in each of the previous two rounds, and the knowledge that this was an FA Cup tie, a competition famed throughout the world for its surprise results.
And as thoughts began to wander towards a replay, Hardingwas fouled just outside the Woking area and up stepped Kavanagh to curl in a stunning free-kick to provoke scenes of pandemonium from three sides of the ground.