Depleted Horsham 'did brilliantly' in top-of-the-table clash at Folkestone Invicta

The Hornets suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat at the Seasiders in the weekend’s clash of the BetVictor Premier Division’s top-two.

Horsham, who were missing Lee Harding, Rob O’Toole, Will Miles, Alex Kelly, Taurean Roberts and Harry Mills for their trip to Kent, fell behind to a second half Ira Jackson penalty.

A Joe Shelley own goal then doubled the host’s advantage with 12 minutes remaining.

Substitute Gary Charman struck two minutes later but the Hornets couldn’t mount a comeback as they slipped to third.

Di Paola said: “I was really pleased. It was a good performance in lots of ways.

“I think we tired a bit in the second half. We didn’t have the options to change things up in the second half how we normally would.

“Charlie Harris was carrying a bit of a knock and Dylan (Merchant)’s not played a lot of football recently. For him to come back into a game like that was tough.

“I wasn’t too disappointed. It’s been a really tough week and we knew it was going to be a hard week because of availability and things like that.

“I think we did brilliantly considering we had six key players missing.

The Hornets were their own worst enemy on Saturday, conceding two penalties in the second period in as many minutes.

Horsham keeper George Bentley made a superb stop to keep out Jerson Dos Santos’ first spot kick but the young stopper couldn’t deny Jackson from Invicta’s second penalty.

Di Paola admitted the penalties were ‘needless’ and ‘rash’ but not intentional.

He added: “We gave away a couple of silly penalties that were a bit needless. That wasn’t like us.

“For the first one he’s got his body shape wrong and tried to correct it but it was too late.

“The second one I think he fell into the player. I think he stumbled a bit but it’s just one of those things.

“They’re rash, they’re not ideal and not like us. We’re normally quite diligent and disciplined in how we defend but it happens.”