Di Paola pleased with Horsham's return to winning ways at Chi

The Hornets put a bad week behind them with three points on the road against an in-form City side, who had lost just two of their last 16 games in all competitions.

Horsham made hard work of the points to keep up the pressure in the Premier Division title race after Terry Dodd’s opener midway through the first half.

Former Horsham youngster Josh Clack then missed a second-half penalty to draw his side level, before Kieron Pamment’s goal with three minutes left made the points safe.

Di Paola said: “It was kind of a boring game to be fair and thought we did well on a bit of a tough surface.

“It was a tough game, they are not a bad side although did not really test James Shaw in our goal.

“We gave away a penalty when they were not really troubling us and then had a funny spell, with a couple of things not going our way, but they scored the second.

“They are a good side and would beat most teams in our league when they are up for it. It’s good to get a result after the last couple, but in both the previous games we were much better, but got nothing out of it - it’s funny like that, football.

“We had the three youngsters on the bench as well. We have been a bit unfortunate with squad selection, but have had that all season. Hunty was injured, but we really neded him to play, so I don’t know if that has set him back as you could see he was struggling.”

The first chance saw Jimmy Wild head a free-kick wide on eight minutes and then also put over from a corner.

Dodd showed the City man how it was done two minutes later, when, in the 21st minute he flicked a backwards header from close range into the corner of the net from Darren Boswell’s cross.

The hosts were almost gifted a way back into the game when some poor defending allowed Harry Williams to drill a low cross over and with Josh Clack to swipe wide.

City should have gone in at the break level as a foul by Adam Hunt gave them a free-kick that was whipped into the box, which James Shaw was thankfully to see fly narrowly wide.

The second period offered little in the form of chances with City captain Ruben French going closest in the early moments of the half when his shot from outside the box went wide.

The first real chance of the second half came in the 64th minute and it was Horsham who went close to doubling their lead when Kieron Pamment did well to slip the ball through to Dodd, but his shot was well saved.

Shaw found himself rooted to the spot when Wild glanced a free header over the bar from close range from Clack’s cross

City penalty appeals were waved away as Declan Sieden rushed in to try and force the ball home and he collided with Shaw.

The home side were awarded a spot kick minutes later when two City players were clipped in the box and the referee pointed to the spot. A delay as Hunt received treatment ensued before Clack skied the resulting spot kick well over the bar.

Shaw’s poor punch almost worked in Wild’s favour but was cleared off the line by Charlie Farmer, but they sealed the points late on.

Pamment made sure of the points as he spun to stroke home from inside the box, while Dodd’s header produced a good save to deny them a third.

Horsham: Shaw, Storrie, Farmer, Jones, Knee, Pamment, Hunt, Shelley, Boswell, Archibald (Smith), Dodd (Block). Unused subs: Lewis, Atkinson.