Match Preview

Bostik South East Division

Horsham v Phoenix Sports

On Tuesday night we make the trip down to West Sussex to take on Horsham in a League Fixture.

Our hosts currently sit in 16th place with 2 wins from the 6 games played so far. They have advanced to the 3rd Qualifying Round of the the FA Cup where they will host Poole Town on Saturday.

Phoenix Sports are placed third after a good 3-2 win at home to Greenwich Borough last week. We have won 5 of our 7 League games.

Back in February, in last Seasons fixture, we lost 2-1 on our way to an 11th place finish in the table. Horsham ended in 15th.

We know the ground well as we played there last month against Lancing FC in the FA Cup but it is probably best to not talk too much about about that one. Ironically Lancing are playing Hendon tonight in the delayed 2nd Qualifying Round game.

Take note that kick off is at the earlier time of 7.30pm

From the West Sussex County Times
Horsham manager Dominic Di Paola is expecting a tough contest as they host high-flying Phoenix Sports in the league tonight. The Kent-based side sit third in the Bostik South East table with 15 points from a possible 21 but they were removed from the FA Cup last Wednesday after they were found to have fielded a banned player in their first qualifying round replay against Southern Combination Premier side Lancing.

The Hornets come into the game having picked up a 2-1 away victory over Bostik North side Bury Town in the extra preliminary round of the FA Trophy on Saturday but Di Paola is expecting a difficult side against a team that are 'flying'. He said: "They're third and they are flying. They had a good win away at Guernsey at the weekend and they're a good side so we're expecting a tough game. "They are all tough in this league so we will just play as well as we can and I will be happy with that.

Despite a good away win in the FA Trophy, the Hornets picked up yet more injuries. Before the game had begun, Chris Smith had to pull out due to a knee injury and Lewis Hyde had to come off on 16 minutes after a mid-air collision left him bloodied. Goalscorer Rob O'Toole then limped off on 68 minutes due to an injury to his quad muscle to add to an ever growing injury list for the Hornets. Although all three came off on Saturday, Di Paola is still waiting to hear whether or not his squad selection will be affected for tonight's fixture. He added: "We're waiting to hear because the fallout from Saturday meant we had a number of injuries so we will wait until as late as possible to decide what we're going to do there."