Horsham YMCA ‘shell-shocked’ by thumping defeat to East Preston

YM fell behind after seven minutes when George Neighbour opened the scoring but levelled midway through the first half when Tony Nwachukwu slammed an effort into the top corner.

But their recovery was short-lived, conceding two more just two minutes later.

Dan Simmonds regained the visitors’ lead from the restart before Johan van Driel quickly added a third, smashing into the bottom corner.

Van Driel put EP further ahead with a looping header from a George Bingham cross and, while Matt Daniel halved the deficit with ten minutes to go, Van Driel completed his hat-trick deep into added time to complete a resounding win.

The result pulls EP six points clear of the relegation places, stretching their unbeaten league run to four, while YM drop down to 11th.

Miller said: “The trouble at the moment with us is that we’re either good or we’re bad and Saturday we were very bad. There was no excuses, we deserved everything we got.

“The confidence that should be there, isn’t. I can’t put my finger on it. We came off shell-shocked.”

“But we’ve got to put it right. We’ve got things to do this week before the next game and they’ve got to buy into it.”

Having only tasted defeat once in their previous five league games, including a 3-2 win at Newhaven, YM looked as if they’d finally turned their season around but Miller admitted the result could be a set back.

He said: “We’re losing to sides that we shouldn’t be losing to, no disrespect, but we shouldn’t be losing to them. We feel we’ve turned a corner and then this happens so we’ve got to start again but if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Hopefully, we’ll see what they’re made of now.”

YM visit Pagham on Saturday.

Horsham YMCA: Jeal, Carden, Evans, Gibbs, Harding, Gedling, Nwachukwu, Wadhams (Donaghey 65), Daniel, Lovegrove (Mobsby 74), Hunt (Ryder 74). Unused: Frankland, Dugdale.