'˜Sill mistakes' cost Horsham again in defeat away to Whyteleafe

A 3-1 defeat at Church Lane has left the Hornets with just one win from their opening four Bostik League South East Division games.

A deflected Bradley Wilson effort put Leafe ahead on 12 minutes, before Eddie Dsane picked himself up to convert a penalty after a Lewis Hyde foul on the half-hour mark.

The returning Hyde pulled a goal back for Horsham soon after, but the hosts restored their two-goal cushion on the stroke of half-time when Harrison Carnegie curled home.

That is how it remained despite Leafe missing a penalty in the second half, while Horsham were then denied a spot-kick of their own with 20 minutes to play when Will Hoare went down.

Horsham boss Dominic Di Paola felt his side were again let down by ‘silly mistakes’ in the defeat and even stressed that were the better side for much of the clash.

He explained: “I thought it was a pretty even game despite the scoreline and it was very similar to the Sittingbourne game in the sense it was a decent performance, but we made a couple of individual errors and spent the rest of the game trying to get back into it.

“We started well and created chances and then conceded. We then committed defensive suicide, under no pressure we have given the ball and given away a penalty, between those two goals we were the better side.

“We got it back to 2-1 and all we are telling the boys is to get to half-time, but we switched off again and they have a two versus one and a lucky bounce, although it was a good finish at the end.

“At 3-1, you feel a bit hard done by but at the same time I wanted to shout at people for making silly mistakes.

“They were then given a penalty which was fully four yards outside the box as shown on the video, but a bit of justice was done as he missed it. I felt we dominated after that, but couldn’t get anything.

“Credit to them, they defended ever so well and made it hard for us to break them down. Their manager said he could not believe they had come in 3-1 up at half-time and I tended to agree with him, but being the better team does not always mean you are going to win.”

Horsham had an early effort chalked out for offside when Darren Boswell had applied the finishing touch, before goalkeeper Tyle McCarthy was alert to push away Joe Taylor’s cross.

But the hosts led from their first venture forwards as a corner wasn’t cleared and Wilson’s deflected effort beat Josh Pelling.

Miss-control from Charlie Farmer then allowed Dsane in and Hyde brought him down and the striker made no mistake from the spot.

At the other end, Hyde then lost his man and put a trademark header into the back of the net from a free-kick deliver.

But Leafe soon led again as Harrison Carnegie was allowed time and space to keep a ball in play and curled home from a tight angle.

Six minutes into the second half saw a Charlie Harris’ lunge result in another penalty, despite Horsham protests it was outside the box - although Dsane fired well over.

Hoare appeared to be bundled over inside the box when about to shoot, but surprisingly, nothing was given.

Horsham: Pelling, McElliott, Hyde, Farmer, Taylor, Haywards, Boswell, Harris, Lovegrove, Harding, O’Toole. Unused: Hoare, Hartley, Richardson-Brown, Coleman.