Horsham ‘not in a position’ to think about title

The Hornets moved to the division’s summit after a resounding 4-0 home victory over Bowers & Pitsea on Saturday.

The Green and Yellows sit one point clear of second-placed Folkestone Invicta, with 34 points from 16 games, but the Stripes have a game in hand.

Topping the table caps a remarkable return for Horsham on their return to step three after a seven-year absence.

But Di Paola quelled talk of a Hornets title tilt at this stage. The manager stressed that Horsham’s target this season was to ‘just stay up’ and that his team couldn’t afford to be ‘bullish’ about their promotion prospects

He said: “If you’ve got a massive budget like the Billericay team from a couple of years ago and are light years ahead of everyone else, you can be a bit bullish and say we’re going for it.

“But we’re not in that position. I’m fairly certain we’ve got a bottom-eight budget and I’m fairly certain we’ve got a squad of players who haven’t done anything at this level.

“I think you’d be stupid to be thinking about promotion at the moment.

“The likes of Cray, Carshalton, Worthing have stabilised at this level for a while and their targets are to get promoted.

“Our target is to just stay up. We’ve looked at getting 50 to 51 points this season so if we get to that point that takes the pressure off us as soon as possible again.

“This is the first season since we’ve been at the club where we’ve there’s no pressure.”

And a look at the league statistics would suggest he is right.

Horsham boast the joint second-highest goal tally in the Premier Division (31 in 16), as well as the third-least amount of goals conceded (12).

The minimal pressure has resulted in ‘relaxed displays’ from players unburdened by the weight of expectation

Di Paola added: “The year we tried to get out of the County League every week we were saying to the boys, look there’s no problem, just go and play your normal game but it’s rubbish.

“If you have to win games to save something it’s very hard mentally. If you say to someone in a cup final, it’s just another game, you start playing within yourself.

“This year, people can go and express themselves and play.

“The boys are responding to that because I don’t think they’re thinking about promotion or any of that, they’re enjoying being at the club.

“They’re having a great time and a good laugh and that’s why you get a bit more relaxed displays a lot of the time.

“As soon as you start getting nervy the performances drop.”

Horsham visit Potters Bar Town in the BetVictor Premier Division on Saturday.