Horsham men are made to fight all the way by Worthing

Duncan Howarth’s home side twice saw leads pegged back before a brace from top scorer John Burroughs finally put Horsham out of reach.

It was the side’s first game for three weeks after last Saturday’s trip to Holcombe II was called off and skipper Howarth said: “It was a close one, but hopefully we removed the rust following the wintry weather and can look forward to our next few games.

“It was a tough game, against a good team, and we had to work hard to grind out a result.”

With Worthing able to play their game last week, and Horsham losing out to the weather again, the visitors started the game much sharper and took the lead.

Some sharp finishing from youngsters John Kimberley and Jack Dean though gave Horsham the lead in the first half, but they were again pegged back to 2-2 shortly after.

A second for Kimberley made it 3-2, but again Worthing fought back strongly and scored a third in the second half.

Horsham were briefly down to ten men at 3-3, but soon after returning to full strength the prolific Burroughs put the ball in the back of the net following an assist from Jack Dean.

Burroughs put the result out of reach for Worthing with a slick finish from a well-worked short corner routine to see Horsham to a 5-3 victory.

Howarth said: “Whilst it was vital to win, it was disappointing that we conceded three goals in one game when we had conceded only nine in the previous 12. That said, it was an encouraging way to finish the game, and had our touch been a little better, I think a couple more goals would have been scored in the Worthing goal.”