Chelmsford City 6 v Horsham 0
Saturday 22nd October 2005
FA Trophy first qualifying round

Reporter: Jim Bravery

Horsham's involvement in this season's FA Trophy competition was ended at Billericay Town's New Lodge ground in emphatic style, courtesy of a 6-0 thrashing by Ryman Premier Division opponents Chelmsford City. The Clarets, in temporary residence of their neighbours' base while work is completed on the Melbourne Park sports complex, strolled to a win over their visitors who were hampered by a thirty-seventh minute sending off of Nigel Brake. But, in truth, the match was probably beyond the Hornets even at that stage as the hosts, already two goals to the good, played with a confidence and determination not matched by their opponents who stood a mere four places below them in the Ryman League yet fell to their heaviest defeat in John Maggs' five year spell in charge.
The unusually low turn out from the Horsham supporters, clearly a result of the Sunday kick-off, were in good voice as the match kicked off, despite hearing the news that influential midfielder Lee Carney was missing from the line-up as a result of a hernia problem. Hornets' boss, John Maggs, opted to start with the height of Dominik Hudak up front with Florian Mateos slipping to the substitutes' bench.

Horsham had managed to keep the home side at bay during the opening exchanges but were caught out on twenty-seven minutes when substitute Richard Halle rose highest to head home a left-wing corner. The goal seemed to raise the tempo of the game and, although the Hornets had a few half chances, they could not turn them into goals and the Clarets doubled their lead in the thirty-fourth minute when Alex Fiddes, with his back to goal, headed a hopeful ball goalwards sending it looping over Elliott's hands into the net. Less than five minutes later, Horsham were trailing by three goals and were down to ten men. Nigel Brake collected a booking when he was harshly adjudged to fouled his man and, shortly afterwards, was involved in a goalmouth collision that saw the Hornets winger and goalkeeper Elliott go down in a heap with a Chelmsford forward and referee Hoare stunned the visiting players and supporters by awarding a penalty. Brake's justified protests were not to Mr Hoare's liking and he produced a second yellow card, handing the numerical advantage to the hosts for whom Greg Lincoln rubbed salt in Horsham's wounds by firmly netting from twelve yards and the match was effectively ended as a contest.

To their credit, the Hornets didn't give up but, with their attacking options now severely limited with Brake's departure, most of their efforts tended to come from distance and Gavin King was rarely tested in the home goal while Gary Elliott was forced into making several good saves as the Clarets threatened to run riot.

Chelmsford started the second half strongly. Jamie Richards shot wide and Lincoln had his shot well saved by Elliott. From the throw out, Farley found himself in space and made a good run towards the edge of the Chelmsford box before squaring the ball to Andy Walker but his shot went high and wide. The ten men were constantly caught pushing forward and Elliott was frequently called upon to save the day. However, when Mark Hawthorne was caught in possession in the fifty-second minute, the ball was knocked out wide and the resulting cross fell to an unmarked Richards who made no mistake, crashing the ball into the net to make it 4-0. This prompted a switch from the visiting bench and a double substitution saw Dominik Hudak and Ian Payne replaced by Florian Mateos and Matt Geard.

Within five minutes, Horsham had their best passage of play and, for the next ten minutes, created some good chances. A short free kick to Jamie Taylor saw his shot take a deflection which took all the pace off the ball and it trickled through to King. A couple more quick breakaways almost caught the Hornets napping before a Castrechino free kick found Farley heading wide at the far post. Maggs was forced to replace the injured Taylor with Eddie French with a quarter of an hour left.

Geard was seeing a lot of the ball on the left wing but this was not one of his better days as another good passing move fell to him but his poor finish was easily saved. Westcott was well marked all afternoon and even he was well short of his best when it came to the final ball. The last few minutes proved to be fatal for the Hornets as two major defensive blunders let in Richards to score his second, and Chelmsford's fifth, followed by another great chance to score his hat-trick a minute later but his shot went wide. The scoring was completed in the final minute when Lincoln also bagged his second of the afternoon before Mr Hoare put the visitors out of their misery.

Chelmsford City: 1.Gavin King 2.Peter Smith 3.Michael Haswell 4.Jerrome Sobers 5.Russell Edwards (Halle) 6.Greg Lincoln 7.Alex Fiddes 8.Craig Edwards 9.Jamie Richards 10.Adrian Allen (Edwards) 11.Ronnie Watson (Renner) Subs: 12.Roy Edwards 14.Victor Renner 15.Richard Halle 16.Alex Lawler

Horsham: 1.Gary Elliott 2.Carlo Castrechino 3.Ian Payne 4.Tom Graves 5.Eddie French 6.Florian Mateos 7.Andy Walker 8.John Westcott (Cant) 9.Jamie Taylor 10.Dominik Hudak 11.Nigel Brake Subs: 12.James Cant 14.Mark Hawthorne 15.John Farley

Goalscorers

Chelmsford City: Halle, Fiddes, Lincoln (2), Richards (2)

Att: 358