Horsham FC boss Di Paola wants to take pressure off forwards after four-point week

The narrow victory over second-from-bottom Borough came after a ‘painfully frustrating’ 1-1 draw at home to fellow play-off challengers Wingate on Saturday.

Lee Harding grabbed a second half winner for the Hornets against Haringey, a result which saw them move within two points of the play-off zone.

Horsham, now eighth, still have four games in hand on Hastings, who occupy the final play-off spot of fifth.

Despite the three points, Di Paola admitted Horsham should have netted ‘six or seven’ against Borough after the frontline spurned a number of gilt-edged opportunities.

He said: “Three points is three points - but we should have won by five. I watched the game back and we created so many chances.

“We have to take the pressure off in terms of our scoring, because we are doing so many things well. We’ve hit the post, we’ve had two ruled out for offside, we’ve missed three sitters - that could have made it six or seven.

“We need to take some pressure off the boys in terms of our finishing, then hopefully it will click because the boys are doing well in general. They’re doing great things.”

Horsham also rued missed opportunities in the draw with fourth-placed Wingate.

After a goalless first half, Charlie Hester-Cook netted on 59 minutes to give the Hornets the lead. But the home crowd were silenced when Alkeo Bani’s bolt from the blue drew the visitors level on 76 minutes.

Di Paola said: “We fully deserved to win. It was painfully frustrating that we dropped points. We were annoyed. They had one shot on target and scored. I don’t think they could believe their luck.

“We were the dominant team considering they’re the in-form team in this league. They had about 60 goals in their front three and we limited them to nothing.

“Once you step back from things and reflect, you can see the boys did really well to do what they did on the day.”

The Hornets visit third-placed Billericay on Saturday before travelling to Potters Bar on Tuesday.