Di Paola off to church after luckless defeat at Heath

On Saturday morning, they were five points clear at the top of the table - but defeat to Eastbourne followed by a 1-0 reserve at local rivals Broadbridge Heath has left them with a mountain to clim in the title race.

Town are now a point clear with a game in hand and Di Paola felt that their inability to turn pressure into goals against Heath on Tuesday night summed the week.

He said: “We had a couple off the line and hit the post, it’s just the way our luck is going this week.

“I actually thought we played well, it’s hard to be critical. After the first ten minutes, once we had got over our hangover from Saturday, when we were a bit nervous, I thought we played some nice football on a really bad pitch.

“We came out second half with the right attitude, but it’s just the way things are going. We had eight or nine chances and you have to take them.

“Evan (Archibald) could have had a hat-trick, Pammy (Kieron Pamment) had a great chance. You have to put the game away, all the time it’s at 0-0 they will keep fighting.

“I must have upset someone up there, they must be annoyed with me, I’ll have to go to church this weekend and sort it out, being a Catholic lad.”

Jakes Holmes’ second-half goal separated the derby after goalkeeper Michael Chester pulled off a string of saves.

Horsham were left frustrated at some delaying tactics in the closing stages and Di Paola added: “Once the momentum goes out the game it is tough.

“If the referee could have worked out what they were doing, maybe he could have taken control of it, but he just gave a token booking at the end.

“They did what they had to do, it’s up to the ref to stamp it out, but I asked him afterwards about it and he said, ‘what am I supposed to do?’. He’s meant to deal with it as a referee.

“They had a couple of shots and scored from one and that’s how you win football matches, you score goals and we couldn’t.”

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