Di Paola challenges Horsham to be at their best to beat Pagham

The Hornets maintained their 100% start to 2018 with a 2-0 win at Whyteleafe on Saturday, but Di Paola thinks more will be needed to beat their high-flying SCFL Premier Division opponents.

He said: “It will be a really tough game, they are bang in form.

“They are flying in the County league and have some good players. If you go through their team, a lot of them have played in the Ryman leagues.

“There’s some really good quality there and we will have to be at our best to have a chance. It will be as tough a game as we’ll have and we will be have to be on it.”

After an excellent start to the calendar year, Di Paola put the winning form down to the vastly improved player availability at the club.

He added: “It’s (because of) player availability. We’ve now got a full squad with Alex Duncan on his way back from a hamstring problem.

“Just having players to pick from helps as we’re not playing players who have knocks.

“Not being light on numbers is a big one for us, it’s been a major problem this year.

“We can now give the boys a bit more breathing space to get themselves fully fit.

“We’ve also changed a lot of players, but now it’s beginning to gel and we just need to concentrate.

“We’ve got to keep working hard and sticking to the game plan. We’ve got to keep everyone injury free and go from there really.”