Historic Horsham win dampened by injuries

Rob OToole may have suffered a concussion in Horshams historic Velocity Trophy victory. Picture by Steve Robards

Jack Brivio’s early goal secured a 1-0 victory and booked the Hornets’ place in the semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history.

But goalscorer Brivio and Alex Kelly were withdrawn through injury before Margate’s Ben Swift was shown a red card in the second half. Rob O’Toole was then substituted with less than 15 minutes to go because of what Di Paola feared might be concussion.

The Hornets boss said: “If it is a concussion then Rob’s out for two weeks, which is a shame. He was brilliant in the first half.

“I don’t think it really helped our performance because we ended putting round pegs in square holes.

“In the end we put a team out just to put a team out instead of trying to nullify their threats.

“It wasn’t a great night from that point of view. We’re just going to have to assess people over the next few days.”

The Hornets opened the scoring after just seven minutes. Steve Metcalf played a pinpoint cross into Brivio, who volleyed home from close-range.

But, despite the goal, there was little in the way of goalmouth action in the remainder of the half.

Horsham fashioned their best chance for a second a minute before the break.

A lovely passing move ended with Greg Cundle hitting a fierce shot from the edge of the area that required a diving save from Gate keeper Joe Tupper.

Ten minutes into the second half, Margate were reduced to ten. An incident off the ball from a Gate corner saw a scuffle ensue in the Hornets area.

Margate captain Swift was summoned by referee Conall Bartlett and was shown a straight red for violent conduct.

Horsham were nearly the architects of their own downfall with 20 minutes to go. Joe Shelley carelessly gave the ball away to Noel Leighton in the box but the striker blasted wide.

With five minutes remaining some last-ditch Hornets defending kept out shots from Jack Richards and Chris Sessesgnon.

But Horsham survived a tense end to the game to secure their place in the last four.

Di Paola added: “We made a little bit of hard work of it in the second half.

“I don’t think they caused us too many problems but we didn’t retain the ball well in the second half.

“We started the game so well. We should’ve been three up inside the first 15 minutes really.”

Horsham: Bentley, Metcalf, Sparks, Kelly (Smith 46), Shelley, Miles, Brivio (Harris 23), Dawson, O’Toole (Charman 77), Cundle (Mills 70), Harding. Unused: Rumsey.