Buckland pleased with YMCA's second-half response but says Arundel deserved their win

Horsham YMCA lost three of their starting 11 before kick-off and were forced into changes ahead of the Premier Division clash.

And Buckland admitted they didn’t get those right and deserved to be trailing 3-0 at half-time as their four-game unbeaten run was ended.

Dave Herbert put Arundel ahead on 27 minutes and added another five minutes before the break as he capitalised on a short back pass.

Another weak ball back to goalkeeper Mark Fox saw Dion Jarvis make it 3-0 on the stroke of half-time. With YM then bossing the second half, Sam Schaaf missed a glorious chance and the home side couldn’t make the pressure count.

Dean Carden was then shown a second yellow card for dissent and Josh Biggs added Arundel’s fourth late on.

Buckland said: “I had a formation worked out, but lost three of the starting 11 between 6pm and kick-off. Nick Sullivan, Phil Johnson and Harry Shipton all had problems coming from work and arrived late.

“We had to shuffle the pack and got it completely wrong first half.

“That’s not taking anything away from Arundel, we were probably at our worst and they were at their best, which isn’t a good combination. They thoroughly deserved to win, but we got back to 4-4-2 at half-time and in the second half - it’s a ridiculous thing to say, but we bossed it until Dean Carden got sent off.

“You are chasing the game then and always likely to concede. We could have collapsed and lost it six or seven-nil, but what you are looking for as a manager is to show a bit of belief and take something into your next game and we did that.

“At 3-0 down in the second half we could have easily scored three goals. It’s a shame as we had turned a little corner and were in good shape.”

Horsham: Fox, Carden, Cooke, Harding (Johnson 46), Gathern, Curtis, Cave, Gedling (Sullivan 46), Brown, Evans, Schaaf.