"We changed things about a bit in the first half but it didn't really pay off," admitted John Maggs, who acknowledged that his side were below par until the break. "It started to happen for us in the second half and then we played them off the park. I thought they (Horley) worked very hard to stop us playing but we scored three well taken goals, the pick of which was from Steve Davies when he pivoted and hit a great shot. Pat's goal was a typical striker's finish and it was a great move for Gary's goal with Lee Carney and Jack Lyons linking up well again. The only minus for us was Mark's hamstring but I'm going to rest him until at least the YM match to give him chance to recover and hopefully he'll be okay."

Lyons' connection with Carney has been evident in much of the Hornets' pre-season performances but the manager has revealed that he will make a decision on the former Crystal Palace apprentice's future after Saturday's match with Godalming Town. "I'll take another look at him and James Nicholls at the weekend and see where we go from there. You can see that Jack's got a lot of quality about him but James didn't get much of a chance to impress tonight so we'll give them both another run out and we'll decide from there."

Gary Charman returned to the starting line-up along with Knee, and trialist James Nicholls was handed a place in John Maggs’ starting eleven for the first time. Carney and Lyons continued their dominant partnership in the centre of midfield but Alex Haddow's first appearance of the Summer remained unfulfilled due to an extended holiday.

It took Horsham time to get going on another slow pitch, albeit vastly superior to that at Redhill, and Mark Frimpong almost got the Clarets off to a perfect start when he rose high above the Hornets defence but headed straight at Rob Tolfrey. However, the Hornets pushed on and a corner found its way through to Anthony Acheampong who snatched at the ball with his left foot, lashing his effort past the far post.

Horley were then awarded a free kick on the edge of the box and centre half Antony Jupp stepped up and troubled Tolfrey who had to scramble to his left to prevent the ball from entering the goal. Charman fought well to earn Horsham their next chance, working his way into the penalty area to send the ball across the goal where Ben Andrews was waiting but his volley went narrowly wide of the mark.       

The Hornets' partnership up front showed great understanding when a long crossfield ball by Andrews was met by Harding. Running onto the ball he raced into the box, getting the better of the defender, and struck the ball with his left foot but Wastell was down well to deny Horsham the lead.

The visitors then tried something different from a corner, playing it short to Ian Payne who crossed the ball high with his left foot to the far post where Acheampong had lost his marker but could only head the ball into the ground, enabling Wastell to palm the ball away to safety to keep the scores level at half time.

H/T Horley 0-0 Horsham

The Clarets were again the sharpest out of the changing rooms but Danny Guscott’s header went wide of the goal. But Horsham finally found a breakthrough when Payne’s corner found Sam Page towering above Horley's defence to head straight at the goalkeeper who palmed the ball back into play and Harding was there to lash it into the roof of the net with his left foot.  It was Payne who also created the Hornets' next chance when a long pass to Steve Davies took a nick off of the defender and the striker reacted quickest to turn and volley into the top left hand corner of the goal from the edge of the box.

Lyons had put in another fine shift at the heart of the Hornets midfield and he nearly got himself on the scoresheet but Wastell produced a fine diving save to deny the Horsham trialist from 25 yards.  Carney and Lyons again showed their almost telepathic understanding when they combined to create the visitors' final goal of the game. Some fine quick passing ended up with Carney squaring the ball in to the path of the unmarked Charman, on the penalty spot, who fired hard and low into the bottom right hand corner of the net.      

NEXT MATCH: v Godalming Town (a) Saturday 1st August ko 3pm