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A triallist bagged a double for the Hornets as they opened pre-season with a 2-2 draw at home to Met Police on Friday night.

Horsham played out a thrilling 3-3 home draw with Erith on Tuesday evening. Jack Mazzone, Jack Strange and Shamir Fenelon were on the scoresheet for the hosts.

The Hornets’ friendly schedule continues on Saturday with a home game against Maidstone before a trip to Dorking on Tuesday (7.45pm).

Skipper Jack Brivio in action for Horsham in last Friday's pre-season friendly against the Metropolitan Police. Pictures by John Lines

Di Paola said: “Friday night, in the first half, I thought we were really good but in the second half I thought we were really poor.

“Last [Tuesday] night I thought we were pretty poor in the first half, and then excellent in the second half. We could have scored a lot of goals and they didn’t really trouble us.

“But it’s going okay, we’re just slowly building it up. It’s just about getting people up to speed.

“The things we’ve got to sharpen up are the obvious things, like work out of possession. We’ve now got three tough games which will give us a good chance to work out of possession a bit.”

Summer signing Lewis Carey started Horsham's game against the Met Police

Horsham have also further boosted their ranks with Guyanese internationals Matthew Briggs and Kadell Daniel.

Ex-Fulham defender Briggs joins from Gosport, while Daniel has re-signed for the club.

Di Paola added: “He [Briggs] has got lots of experience in this league. Sometimes we can be a bit naive, but he’s a good communicator, a good leader, and good in the dressing room, which is what you want.

“I spoke to Briggsy in the summer, and at the time I didn’t think Kadell was coming back as he had talked about maybe moving on.

Alex Malins tussles for the ball with a Met Police player

“But me and Kads had a couple of chats and we agreed we were going to be okay.”

Horsham have also discovered their 2023-24 Isthmian Premier itinerary.

The Hornets will open the season at home to last season’s play-off finalists Hornchurch on August 12.

Di Paola said: “We’ve got five of the favourites in the first nine. It’s going to give us a tough start, but that’s fine. It’s kind of to be expected in this league.”

Pre-season campaign gets underway at Horsham FC as international duo commit for new season