Horsham fall to eighth after fourth league defeat in a row

Jack Osgood was voted Horshams man of the match in their loss to Havant. Picture by Windandsurf Images

The margin of defeat would have been greater if the visiting kicker had not missed five out of his six conversion attempts.

The Green and Whites slip to eighth off the back of four consecutive loss.

They will wish to arrest this sequence at KCS Old Boys on December, 7 after a week’s break.

Head coach Nick Stocker said: “A disappointing day that started from a dropped ball at kick off and compounded by missed tackles which lead to a try on 29 seconds.

“We were slow to settle into the game and although we clawed ourselves back into contention, we were always up against it against a strong, physical, well drilled side.”

Horsham found themselves with a mountain to climb as they conceded a couple of tries in the first six minutes.

Missed tackles following a dropped kick off led to Wayne Dugan scoring a simple try out wide.

The Horsham defence was then caught sleeping and James Wise had a simple run in.

Horsham finally put together some phases and a penalty was converted by Tom Johnson.

The hosts were now applying pressure and Johnson converted another penalty to narrow the deficit to four points after 20 minutes.

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Havant extended their advantage when Scott Morris scored out wide, Joel Knight added a penalty, and on the stroke of half-time Morris popped Knight away to give Havant a 23-6 lead.

Horsham came out after half-time determined to turn the game around but an interception from Ben Chambers when Horsham were in attack saw him run 75 metres to score.

Havant sealed their win when Wise added his second try wide out after several missed tackles.

Stocker added: “We coughed up possession when carrying the ball repeatedly today and were punished when gifting possession to a dangerous side.

“On those occasions when we did look after the ball we looked bereft of attacking ideas.

“We have now lost four on the trot, with three of these losses against the top three. This was the hardest to suffer given the way we performed.

"Mike Watts showed his spirit in his return to the side and played with no shortage of aggression and Nick Bell and Jamie Redmayne were their usual hard working selves.

"Man of match awarded by Havant went to Jack Osgood who carried hard all afternoon.”