'Professional' Horsham FC see off Hanworth Villa to set up FA Cup date with old friends Dorking

The Hornets advanced to the next round courtesy of a 3-1 victory over the Villains.

Jack Strange headed the hosts ahead on nine minutes but Sam Merson, son of former Arsenal, Aston Villa and Portsmouth hero Paul, struck in stoppage time to see the scores level at the break.

Horsham retook the lead through Kadell Daniel on 53 minutes, before Hornets skipper Jack Brivio made sure of the win with 20 minutes to go.

Di Paola said: “I thought we were a bit slack in the first half. I don’t think we played particularly badly, we were just a bit loose in our play. We gave them a couple of opportunities to be in the game and then, frustratingly, we gave a goal away just before half-time.

“I lost it a little bit at half-time. I just felt like we were making the game much harder than we needed to.

“But to be fair to the boys, we came out in the second half and we looked comfortable. We were pretty much in control for the vast majority of it.

“It was quite a professional performance. It was probably what we should have done against Marlow in the previous round, but we’re happy to have won the game.”

This Saturday sees the Hornets turn their attentions to the FA Trophy. Horsham entertain Brightlingsea in the third qualifying round, before travelling to Midhurst on Tuesday evening in the Sussex Senior Cup.

Di Paola said: “We really want to win both games. At the moment, we’re fully focussed on winning as many games as we can.

“I think it was two years ago we got to the first round [of the FA Cup], but we were so short on numbers it was hard for us to get teams out on the pitch.

“We’re not in that position at the moment. We’ve got plenty of players, we’ve not got an injury crisis like we did last time.

“We’re going to go full throttle. They’re both games we want to win. I’m absolutely focussed on Brightlingsea on Saturday.”

Jack Mazzone and Danny Barker are both doubts for Saturday due to respective hamstring issues.