Horsham 1 v 1 Hastings United

Saturday 26th March 2011
Ryman League Premier Division
Gorings Mead, Horsham
Admission: £10.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 251
Match Rating: 2

The ridiculous timing of England's match against Wales in Cardiff at 3pm on Saturday did not remotely tempt me into missing a non-league game, although where I ended up was not even on my radar when setting out. Severe disruption to trains meant my original plan to visit Fareham Town or one of the Littlehampton clubs was scuppered, leaving a Sussex derby in the Ryman League as the best of the remaining options.

Horsham currently play at Gorings Mead, home of Horsham YMCA, after leaving their delightfully traditional Queen's Street ground and a season at Worthing's Woodside Road ground. Horsham have been lucky to be able to play at a ground almost adjacent to their old ground - although the sight of new houses where their ground was located was sad to see - but presumably things will get tricky next season as the landlords of Gorings Mead, Horsham YMCA, are almost certain of relegation to the Sussex County League, a league which does not allow groundshares and which meant that Horsham had to play at Worthing when YMCA were last in the Sussex League a couple of years ago. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the traditionally lowly status of Horsham YMCA, Gorings Mead, which is located on the outskirts of Horsham and about a 20 minute walk from the train station, is very basic with a strong County League standard feel to the place, although it does have a nice rural, unpretentious feel. Along one side of the ground is a small all-seater stand, with two very small portable type stands, one offering seating, the other standing, On the opposite side is a small, old fashioned stand offering terrace steps set some way back from the pitch. The rest of the ground just has hard standing.  The 64 page programme was of a very good standard, plenty to read and digest, printed on good quality paper, attractively designed with lots of colour - including recent match photos, the only downside would be the high proportion of adverts - 31 pages exclusively containing adverts, not including player sponsorship..

When the two teams met earlier this season in Hastings, Horsham had three players sent off but still somehow managed to hold on to win 3-2. This was just about the only factor pointing away from a drab tussle between two struggling teams, in 17th and 18h place in the 22 team league, both having played the same number of games and with Horsham a point better off. With four teams relegated, both teams are in real danger, Hastings five points clear of fourth from bottom and six points clear of third bottom Folkestone Invicta, but both of these teams have two games in hand. After a calamitous middle third of the season which saw Hastings part company with their manager and many of their players and went on a run of 10 straight league defeats - and one point from 13 games - around Chrismas, their form has picked up recently with three wins in their last five games, but Horsham have been in poor form, picking us just three points from draws from their last six games and haven't won in the league since late January.

On a rather misty and muggy afternoon on what was an awful pitch - hard, bobbly with unpredictable bounce - the first half of this game was a rather forgettable affair, with Hastings in particular lacking any cohesion and playing far too many stray passes. Horsham looked the stronger team and they took the lead on 11 minutes when a long ball was flicked on and Ashley Robinson showed good composure to lob the ball past the keeper and into the net from just outside the penalty area. The rest of the half was a drab affair, except for Horsham's Ben Andrews forcing a wonderful point-blank save from the Hastings keeper, Seb Barton.

In the second half, Hastings showed much more urgency and application than they had in the first, although they still seemed to lack the quality needed to get back into the game as Horsham looked quite comforable. However, the game changed midway through the second half when Horsham's captain Ben Andrews, who was playing his first game in six weeks due to injury, was shown a yellow card for handball just outside the penalty area. Excessive verbals to the assistant referee earnt Andrews an early bath, the fourth Horsham to be sent off against Hastings this season, and from this point on, Hastings took total control of the match. After a couple of gilt-edged chances, Hastings did get back on level terms on 75 minutes when Ross Sutton played in a superbly judged cross deep into the box and Ollie Rowe firmly headed home from 8 yards out. From looking desperately poor in the first half, Hastings really should have claimed the win with several more excellent chances to score, but in the end, it was a point apiece, which became a better result on learning that both Aveley and Folkestone had lost today.

Ashford Town (Middlesex) 0 v 2 Horsham

Monday 5th April 2010
Ryman League Premier Division
Short Lane, Stanwell
Admission: £9.00
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 113
Match Rating: 3

For the second game of my Easter Monday fare, I made the 25 minute journey from Chertsey to Ashford (Middlesex) for this Ryman League Premier Division match. Short Lane, located very close to the south side of Heathrow Airport, is about a half hour brisk walk from Ashford train station, for those less able or less keen on the long walk and negotiating the busy A30 dual carriageway en route, there are regular buses which stop close to the ground.

To give an honest assessment, everything about the set-up at Short Lane smacks of an average County League standard ground. As you enter the ground, there is quite a bizarre stand providing three rows of seating with barely any inclination between the rows. Along the same side is a similar sized stand providing cover for a standing area. On the opposite side, there is one seemingly newish small stand with seating, and apart from that, the rest of the ground just offers hard standing. It’s an arena that doesn’t really seem to fit in with Ryman Premier League football, but perhaps this is a reflection that the club is punching well above its weight by being as high as it is in the pyramid. The facilities are certainly well-maintained and probably perfectly adequate for a club that attracts a relatively low level of support. However, plans are apparently being worked upon to transform the ground over the next ten years.

An interesting feature of the ground is the very low level at which the floodlights are set, due to the very close proximity of Heathrow Airport, and a fairly unique feature of the ground is having large cylindrical fuel tanks behind one of the goals. If your two main passions in life are groundhopping and planespotting, you would be in paradise at Short Lane, watching planes rise into the air close up every couple of minutes from Heathrow airport.

The programme was a disappointment, it has to be said. An introductory message explained that this was a reduced effort due to printing deadlines and keeping out much information that would be out of date on the day of the match. Maybe I'm being harsh in saying that this doesn't really wash, not when just earlier the same day I found a Combined Counties club managing to produce a very interesting and informative programme under identical circumstances.

A glance at the league tables before the match (which was not possible from the programme) would have hinted at a standard mid-table encounter. However, Ashford are currently in truly alarming form, having lost seven of their last eight league games before this one. In most leagues there seems to be a team that drops like a stone as the season enters its final couple of months, and Ashford Town (Middlesex) certainly seem to fit the bill in the Ryman League Premier Division this season. Not so long ago they were challenging for a play-off berth. Only five points now separated them and the relegation places, so they will have to arrest the slide urgently if they are not to be sucked through the trap door. Things look altogether more comfortable for Horsham under the wily and vastly experienced management of John Maggs, comfortably in mid-table but with a play-off berth not completely out of the question.

On a dry, occasionally sunny but always very windy afternoon, the tone for this game was set in the very first minute, when the Ashford goalkeeper had to pull off an excellent save to deny Horsham's top scorer, Pat Harding. Horsham fashioned some excellent chances to take the lead, with Ashford barely looking a threat. On the half hour, Horsham finally took a deserved lead with a well taken shot by Hassan Nyang, who drove powerfully home from the edge of the penalty area. Horsham continued to dominate and have most of the chances, and it was only a surprise that it took until first half stoppage time for them to double their lead, with another excellently taken goal, driven low into the corner from 18 yards out.

In the second half, Ashford came much more into the game and spent more time venturing into the Horsham half, without ever really looking like they would score. As the second half wore on, Horsham regained more and more control, and the final twenty minutes, the game turned into something of a stalemate - Horsham happy with their two goal lead, Ashford not really seeming to have enough of a cutting edge to claw a goal back, apart from the odd decent half chance. In added on time at the end of the game, Ashford were reduced to ten men when Brett Cooper pulled back Steve Davies just outside the penalty area to deny a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. A silly sending off for the Ashford defender with the game lost, for which he will now serve a suspension, but I suppose such things are instinctive reactions to situations.