Horsham forced to revise aims after hitting pre-season target

The Horsham manager admitted his personal end-of-season objective was 51 points, expecting a relegation battle for the Hornets, but last Saturday’s 2-0 win over Haringey Borough confirmed they’d reached that mark with just under three months of the season remaining.

And with Horsham in sixth place, and surpassing all expectations, Di Paola confirmed he had revised his aims.

He said: “We want to finish as high as we can. I’d quite like to get to the mid-table mark so around 65 points maybe. To be honest, I’ve not really thought about it.

“The aim was always the 51-point mark and we’ve done that so now we can just see where we end up. It’s a credit to the boys for how quickly we’ve got there.

“It’s slowed down a little bit, we were going at quite a rate, but it’s a brilliant achievement for our club that we’ve managed to secure safety in the first week of February.”

Last week’s result aside, Horsham had taken just two points from their previous four games but Di Paola wasn’t concerned with the apparent dip in form.

He continued: “The last few weeks we’ve been really good. I don’t think it’s even been a rough patch. In general I’ve been really happy with a lot of what we’ve done recently. I’ve not really had too much to complain about.

“We’re two points off the play-offs and okay, we’ve dropped a bit lower, but you’ve got to be realistic. We were never going to stay in those top two positions because we’re not that team at the moment.

“Results wise, it’s been a bit of a blip but, for the morale in the team, there hasn’t even been a negative. I can’t fault the boys, I’ve got no complaints, morale’s been good all season.”

Di Paola believes, by reaching the 51-point mark, his side can play with a bit more freedom.

Asked whether he feels the pressure’s off, he said: “Yeah I think so. If we’re being honest, the pressure was probably off mid-to-late November.

“But, the fact we’ve hit that sort of figure, means we can just enjoy the second half of the season. We want to enjoy this run-in and make it fun.”

Horsham have confirmed that their Velocity Trophy quarter-final home tie with Margate will take place on Tuesday February 25.

Kick-off for the clash at The Camping World Community Stadium is scheduled for 7,45pm.