Campbell bemoans luckless start leaving Horsham in relegation zone

The Broadbridge Heath Leisure Centre-based side go into their final game of the first half of the season on Saturday sitting second-from-bottom in the table.

After being promoted to this level for the first time in their history last season, the honeymoon period is well and truly over for Horsham.

They have seven points from ten games after a run of six straight defeats and seven without a win.

The bottom two sides are normally relegated, but Campbell is confident they will come good after their positive start to the campaign - two wins and draw from their opening four games.

He said: “Having come off the back of a great winning run last season, almost keeping Bromley & Beckenham to a draw, and then taking seven points from nine in the first three games, it looked good.

“That form showed we can compete at this level and we just need to rediscover that form.

“We’ve lost games where we should have taken one point and probably all three. I believe we’ve genuinely been unlucky and haven’t had the rub of the green.

“The important thing for the squad is to believe in their ability - we have a squad that have spent three years winning games and losing poses them questions about their confidence.

“A lot of the results don’t reflect how competitive we have been. It’s been harder than we had hoped, but we lost a few very strong players last year so we have to expect a scrap.

“We set out to get 30 points but, looking at how close the teams are in the table, low 20s should do it. With 12 games left there are 36 points available.”

Horsham are looking to recruit after the loss of their two prolific front men to university leading to the goals drying up this season - having netted just 15 times, the second lowest in the division.

They host Henley this Saturday and Campbell added: “In the bottom half of the division now all games are six pointers. It’s early to grasp at straws but if push comes to shove we have the best negative goal difference of the bottom four by a long way.

“It’s hard to recruit at this time of the season, although we are talking to a couple of players - we’re suffering from injuries and at the moment we’d be happy to be able to field our first choice team. But certainly we’re missing Jack Dean and Noah Chinn who are both at university.”

More on page 78.