Pride before a fall: 'Excellent' Horsham FC come from behind to stun title-chasers before 'embarrassing' Sussex Senior Cup exit

Tom Wraight and Charlie Hester-Cook exchanged first half goals on Saturday before Liam Nash restored Hornchurch’s lead after the interval.

Sam Higgins seemed to have made it 3-1 after Lee Harding’s attempted backpass fell short of Hornets keeper Taylor Seymour - but the referee ruled it out for offside.

Jack Mazzone equalised with seven minutes to go, after which Hornchurch boss Mark Stimson and coach Tony Gay saw red for their protests, before the striker completed the turnaround five minutes later.

Di Paola said: “I think that [the offside decision] has overshadowed a good win for us. Hornchurch are saying it’s cost them the league, but they’ve had a dip in form regardless.

“Their second goal had a handball during the build up, which we felt was an unfair decision. We then should have had a penalty for a foul on Daniel Ajakaiye at 2-1.

“They’ve turned this into an offside decision that’s supposedly the sole reason for them losing the game - but the referee did make a couple of mistakes the other way as well.

“After the offside decision - which wasn’t a good decision, and we all know that - we did really well. We kept our heads, went at them, and I think we warranted something out of the game.

“The narrative of their offside decision has taken away from the fact that we played really, really well on the day. It was a close game against a side that should be winning this league.

“We were excellent, and were more than worthy of getting something out of the game.”

On Tuesday Horsham exited the Senior Cup at the last eight. Joe Gbode hit a hat-trick while Knory Scott grabbed the fourth for Hastings. The Hornets’ consolation came from a Craig Stone own goal.

Di Paola added: “I thought we were a disgrace. You can justify some performances away from home where we’ve had long trips, but I thought we were rubbish - and I haven’t said that very often.

“We didn’t turn up. Our approach was poor and we defended shambolically. We probably gave the ball away more than we have in our last three games combined.

“I said to the boys after the game - it was an embarrassing performance. I was really angry.

“People have got to have a look at themselves. We turned up to a quarter-final, played poorly and never got going.

“We were so soft defensively. We just kept giving them goals. Every time we got a foothold in the game we gave them another goal.

“That’s something I have to address in the summer. I’m bored of it this year. We’ve conceded far too many goals. People have consistently not delivered from a defensive point of view.

“We’ve only got four games left now, but I’m not going to forget the things that have gone wrong this season. We’re not going to sugar-coat it.

“We’ve done better than maybe we should have done in the league given our resources, but I’m not accepting rubbish like that. The boys should be ashamed of their performance.”

Horsham, in eighth, host fifth-placed Enfield Town this Saturday and return to Hastings on Easter Monday.

And Di Paola admitted the short turnaround between games over the bank holiday weekend posed a problem for non-league managers.

He said: “It’s really hard, but it’s hard for everyone. I’ve noticed a few teams have gone down the route of playing on Friday to give them an extra day to recover, but us and Hastings are both playing on the Saturday.

“It’s always a challenge. It’s a tough part of the year, but historically we’ve done well over the Easter weekend. It’s won us leagues.

“I think we pretty much wrapped up the County League over the bank holiday weekend. I think we won both games and Eastbourne Town dropped points.

“It can make or break a season for people. We’re in a slightly different position in that we don’t have that ‘make-or-break’ element to it, but I want to end the season as well as we possibly can.”

Di Paola added he was ‘hopeful’ injured trio Harding, Tom Kavanagh and Bobby Price will be in contention for Saturday’s game against Enfield.