Horsham 2 v Banstead Athletic 0
Saturday 19th November 2005
Ryman League Division One

Reporter: Mark Wells

Gary Charman chose the perfect stage in which to announce his return to his beloved Horsham Football Club, scoring the winning goals against Banstead Athletic in front of more than seven hundred supporters on a crisp November afternoon at Queen Street.

Last season, the fans' favourite registered his three-hundredth appearance in the yellow and green of Horsham before deciding to join Walton & Hersham, newly promoted to the Ryman Premier Division. Sadly for Charman, injury restricted his appearances to just a handful of games before he accepted the chance to rejoin his home town club this week and he marked his comeback with two typical headers that enabled the Hornets to edge closer to leaders Dover Athletic at the top of the table.

Horsham had designated this match as a "Kids For Free" day and they were rewarded with a bumper crowd of 716 - the highest league gate at Queen Street since the visit of AFC Wimbledon fifteen months ago - and the plethora of scarves and jester hats being paraded around the ground would suggest that the day was a financial success for the Club. However, how many of those 'new' fans will return is open to question after they witnessed a fairly sterile contest that saw Horsham lose their way in the second half and, disappointingly, failed to build on their early advantage.

With the sad news that Nigel Brake is likely to miss the remainder of the season with ligament damage, Charman was able to step back into his favoured left-wing role in a line-up that also included Andy Walker who was forced to miss the midweek defeat of Dulwich Hamlet with 'flu. John Maggs' programme notes gave encouraging news that both John Farley and Dominik Hudak are close to making a return from injury and the latter was named among the substitutes as Dave Flemming continued to partner Jamie Taylor up front. There were handshakes at the start of the game as Flemming welcomed former Hornet Marcel Dennis who had rejoined Banstead Athletic from Tooting & Mitcham during the week.

Charman created the first chance of the match after just two minutes when he forced visiting goalkeeper Andy Parkinson, one of five changes to the Banstead line-up, into an uncomfortable save. The Hornets had a scare on five minutes when Simon Huckle played Dennis into space on the right edge of the Horsham penalty area and his shot flew across Gary Elliott and rebounded off the far post before being cleared by Tom Graves. Elliott, back between the sticks following on-loan goalkeeper Will Packham's recall by Fisher Athletic, might have thought he would be in for a busy afternoon following that early chance but, in truth, that was the visitors' best chance of the match.

Horsham looked the more fluent of the two sides in the opening exchanges and a neat interchange between Walker and Lee Carney opened up the A's defence but Walker's finish lacked composure and flew well wide of the goal. Florian Mateos was more accurate when his header was well saved by Parkinson from Flemming's cross.

Horsham took the lead ten minutes later when Carney found Graves in support on the right and his floated cross enabled Charman to get across his marker and plant a header into the bottom corner of the net. The lead was nearly doubled, sixty seconds later, when a great run from Mateos saw him tee up Taylor but the ball bobbled as it reached him, sending the shot high over the crossbar.

Charman's aerial prowess provided Horsham with an able target man and his header was deflected just wide on twenty-four minutes as Banstead, nineteen places below Horsham at the start of play, threw bodies behind the ball. However, Elliott had to be alert to protect the hosts' lead when Huckle's flick put Simon Mitchell clear and the young goalkeeper was quickly off his line to block the ball, and player, with his knees.

Horsham doubled their lead in their next attack when Charman powerfully headed home Eddie French's excellent centre before acknowledging the crowd's applause with his team-mates.

A clever flick from Taylor then gave Flemming a sight of goal but the ball became stuck under his feet and the ball was cleared and Mateos almost caught out Parkinson at his near post with a speculative volley from distance. Mateos then intercepted a poor pass out of defence and laid the ball off to Walker but his cross-shot whistled past the far post.

The home crowd were screaming for a penalty, minutes before the break, when Carney seized on a pass from Graves before being clumsily knocked to the floor by Thomas Ababio but referee Grant Smith waved away the claims. Charman almost claimed his hat-trick in the final stages of the half when Flemming capitalised upon a mistake by the Banstead defence and passed to the flying winger but his low shot was dealt with by Parkinson.

During the interval, supporters were entertained to an exhibition match by the disabled youngsters of Forest Flyers FC who clearly enjoyed playing on the Queen Street pitch and the generous appreciation they received from the crowd.

Unfortunately, the youngsters' enthusiasm didn't seem to transfer itself to the players of Horsham and Banstead during a second period that produced little in the way of excitement for the large crowd. Despite the obvious pace of Dennis and Shannon up front, Banstead's attacks were limited and their passing was, at times, woeful. The Hornets fared little better and Taylor wasted the best chances of the half in a five minute spell when he twice found himself clear inside the Banstead penalty area but, on each occasion, he put his shot the wrong side of the far post.

Martin Beard had a great chance to reduce the arrears on the hour when a free-kick was headed out to him, fifteen yards from goal, but his volley flashed harmlessly off target. John Myatt then cut inside Graves but his shot was blocked by Walker and the follow-up effort thundered away off the body of Andy Howard who had bravely thrown himself in the way of the shot.

A double substitution by the visitors failed to induce any excitement to the proceedings and Huckle summed up their afternoon when he had time and space to measure his shot but, instead, blazed his effort some twenty yards over the crossbar prompting a chorus of "donkey riding" from Horsham's Lardy Boys.

As the match ambled towards its conclusion, supporters found themselves discussing the late afternoon sunset rather than matters on the pitch until the withdrawal of Charman for Simon Berry gave the crowd chance to warm their hands in applauding their goalscoring hero.

Flemming was almost presented with a late chance when a terrific leap by Taylor saw the diminutive striker flick the ball on towards his attacking partner who almost capitalised on a weak back header but he stumbled as he knocked the ball clear of the 'keeper's grasp and the chance was lost.

The final piece of action of action saw Berry sidestep a defender before curling a fine right-foot shot towards the far corner of the net only to be denied by an excellent full-length save from Parkinson. However, perhaps indicative of the second half's action, Mr Smith blew his whistle to signal an infringement - proving the effort to be in vain !

Horsham: 1.Gary Elliott 2.Tom Graves 3.Ian Payne 4.Eddie French 5.Andy Howard 6.Andy Walker 7.Lee Carney 8.Florian Mateos 9.Jamie Taylor 10.Dave Flemming 11.Gary Charman (Berry) Subs: 12.Leo Day 14.Dominik Hudak 15.James Cant 16.Carlo Castrechino 17.Simon Berry

Banstead Athletic: 1.Andy Parkinson 2.Gary Syrett (Agyei) 3.Barry Langford 4.Martin Beard 5.Thomas Ababio 6.Simon Huckle 7.Marcel Dennis (Azzopardi) 8.John Myatt 9.Simon Mitchell (Olusesi) 10.Mark Tompkins 11.Ben Shannon Subs: 12.Daniel Amsbury 14.Kwabena Agyei 15.Michael Azzopardi 16.Kunle Olusesi

Goalscorers

Horsham: Charman (22,31)

Att: 716