Horsham continued their recent good form with a 2-0 win at Tooting & Mitcham to leapfrog their hosts in to 9th place in the Ryman Premier Division table. Goals from Pat Harding and Claude Seanla earned the Hornets a 6th league win in 7 visits to the Terrors' home ground but it was the defence that took the plaudits from boss John Maggs for whom the victory went some way to aiding his recovery from the flu' virus. "A few weeks ago we were leaking a lot of goals but you've got to give credit to the goalkeeper and the back four for that performance. The young 'keeper couldn't have made a better start with us and Sam was awesome. There was a big improvement from Delando, big Tony was superb and James Nicholls did really well when you think that he wasn't 100% and playing in a foreign position for him."

How different the feeling from the Hornets' last visit to the Imperial Fields, back in September, when they crashed to a controversial FA Cup defeat but Maggs admits that he would readily have taken the league points over a cup win every time. "This was a bit of pay back for the Cup defeat," he said. "Don't get me wrong, financially that was a big defeat for us, but those 3 points could be more valuable to us at the end of the season than the memory of a cup run. I told the lads at half-time that we were fortunate with our goal but we were the better side and that if we went back out and were professional about it then we'd get the points. The first 5-10 minutes we played really well but our passing wasn't the best so we had to change it around and switched to 2 banks of 4. We got a bit of a lucky break with the goal but that enabled us to change back again in the second half and it worked for us. Paul Vines will always be a threat up front for Tooting, and our goalkeeper made some good saves, but I don't think anyone could have any complaints about the result. Midway through the half we took over totally and played some good football and could have ended up with 3 or 4. The last 20 minutes was almost exhibition stuff but we won't be getting carried away. I'm delighted with the win, we're in good shape at the moment, and with players to come back in there should be even better to come."

Tooting's cup exploits and Saturday's washout meant that 5 weeks had passed since the Surrey side's last league outing, a 1-0 win over Harrow that moved them in to 2nd place, but just two wins since then and 19 goals conceded suggested that this might just be the perfect time for a visit to the Imperial Fields for Maggs' improving side. However, they were to do so without Gary Charman, who had succumbed to illness during the morning, the suspended Ben Andrews and Mark Knee who continued to rest after his worrying chest injury. Josh Pelling made his debut between the posts after arriving from Brighton on a month's loan while Seanla replaced Charman in a side otherwise unchanged from that which had defeated Sutton United last time out. The Terrors made just 2 changes to the side that faced Horsham in September with Andrew Howell and Jason Henry coming in for Mitchell Nelson and Matt York.

Tooting kicked off in a first half which was to see few chances, although after the first couple of minutes a lot of fans would’ve thought differently. Alex Haddow picked up the ball on the left flank and played a teasing ball over the top and it looked as though an early chance for Harding was on the cards but Dave King collected comfortably in the Tooting goal. Harding was also in the thick of it a minute later when a good challenge almost saw him clean through on goal only for King to thwart him once again.

The game started to settle down after this, with Tooting seemingly taking the advantage. A good run by Henry saw his shot blocked from the left wing and the ball come back to another black and white shirt. The follow up cross was poor, however, giving Pelling his first touch of the ball in a Horsham shirt, catching comfortably.

Tooting were obviously up for the game and were looking increasingly lively, perhaps a little too eager with 3 offsides within the first quarter of an hour. The only chance to speak of at the yellow and green end was a Lee Carney corner which was easily caught by the Tooting ‘keeper. A more difficult chance for Paul Vines occurred when he was left unmarked in the Horsham box with a cross coming in but his volley was off target and the ball was sent in amongst the home fans behind the goal.

Horsham's first shot on goal came after 25 minutes when Seanla took aim from outside the box but he failed to connect with the ball cleanly and King watched as the shot passed harmlessly by for a goal kick.
The Horsham back four looked very strong, with each of them proving themselves in the first half. Delando Smith showed why he is such a forceful attacking threat and James Nicholls also put in a good shift, leaving his nightmare at Bognor behind him.

Horsham might have taken the lead ahen Aaron Goode's late challenge on Carney in the middle of the park led to Steve Sargent's quickly taken kick finding Jack Page on the right. He cleverly won a throw in and the ball broke to Haddow in the middle of the park. Horsham surged forward with a 4 on 3 attack with Harding, Seanla and Carney and Haddow opted for the pass to Seanla but the Ivorian couldn’t get his shot away in time and they had to settle for a corner. The resulting set piece was cleared by the Tooting defence and Allan Mcleod hit an audacious volley from outside the box only to see Pelling parry the ball away just beyond the Tooting player running in. Again, the resulting corner was wasted by the home side.

Horsham won a corner a few minutes before half time and this was the first from either side to show any promise of a goal. Played short to Haddow, running in from left midfield, he played a teasing ball into the near post but unfortunately for the recipient Harding, the ball got caught up under his feet and he could only get a weak shot away which whizzed past the side netting.

You could forgive Harding for not thinking his luck was in this evening, however the next few minutes would tell a different story. Just as the announcement came over the tannoy for the additional time to be added on in the first half, Horsham surged forward with Seanla through the middle. King came out of his goal and saved well at Seanla’s feet. Tooting thought they had the ball cleared when Byatt hoofed the ball away only to see the ball ricochet off the incoming Harding to send the ball looping over the goalkeeper and into the back of the net

H/T Tooting & Mitcham United 0-1 Horsham

Tooting came out lively at the beginning of the second half, although none of their long range efforts troubled the impressive Pelling in the Hornets’ goal. In fact it was to be Horsham who would get a second goal and go on to command the rest of the game.

The first attack of the half seemed to be no trouble for Tooting as a long hopeful ball looked to be cleared away by Howell. Unfortunately for the defender, a complete miskick on his left foot saw the ball go out for a Horsham corner, rather than a clearance up field. Carney stepped up to take the resulting kick, a fierce low drive towards the outside of the box which passed through 3 Tooting defenders and Seanla did what he does best – score goals. Whether it came off his shin, foot or ankle, only he can tell you, but the finish was quite exquisite. A finesse shot straight into the top right corner.

Celebrations erupted behind the goal as the travelling fans saw their team secure a two goal cushion. The celebrations were almost short lived, however, with Tooting attacking straight from the kick off and Pelling once again pulling off an excellent save, parrying the ball into the air and collecting it comfortably.

The Horsham fans continued to sing throughout the second half as they watched their team control the game and restricting the Terrors to long hopeful shots from outside the area with Pelling only being troubled once more as he made a fine save from a Simon Parker shot.

Horsham pushed on further and another corner saw Seanla connect with the ball slightly cleaner than his goal but his shot was put just past the upright. Towards the end of the game Horsham really showed how good their pass and move game can be, running the midfield in the last quarter of an hour. The full time whistle was blown, and the players joined in a ‘disco’ with the fans as they recorded their 3rd straight league win in a row.

The Hornets move up to 9th, for the time being at least with the rest of the league playing their fixtures on the Tuesday night. The players now prepare for their training session on Saturday with the fixture vacated due to Billericay's involvement in the FA Trophy.

NEXT MATCH: v AFC Hornchurch (h) Tuesday 24th November ko 7.30pm