Horsham 1 Hendon 2 (Ryman Premier League)
T
he Hornets’ play-off hopes were dealt a major blow as a lacklustre performance saw them surrender a 1-0 lead after an early half volley from Darren Budd was cancelled out by a goal at the end of each half from Hendon’s Craig Vargas and Harry Hunt.
Hendon’s victory was somewhat over shadowed, though, by an horrific injury to Lee O’Leary after an awkward landing saw him taken to hospital with a double leg break .
Horsham’s Sam Page was also withdrawn with a knee injury which could see him miss the rest of the season if the injury is as bad as first thought.
Darren Budd and Reggie Savage were welcomed back into the starting eleven which meant that Steve Davies and Williams Peauroux dropped to the bench.
Tony Nwachukwu kept his place in the team after Alex Haddow was ruled out with the flu while Lee Carney sat out the first of his two match suspension.
Comic Relief spirit was still high in the air as the Hornets began the game with the new red balls in aid of the fantastic charitable event.
The first chance of the game produced a goal, with the red ball already having to be retrieved from the adjoining garden, the white one was obviously favoured by Horsham.
Savage’s hopeful cross was cleared out of the box by the Greens' centre half. Unfortunately for them it fell to Budd and he produced a sweet half volley which the 'keeper tipped into the stanchion of the goal with Claude Seanla knocking the ball back over the line to ensure Horsham’s lead with Budd credited with his second goal for Horsham as the ball had clearly crossed the line.
Horsham 'keeper Rob Tolfrey was then called into action for the first time in the game as Anthony Acheampong’s indecision in the penalty area saw Peter Dean get in behind the defence and try to poke the bouncing ball past Tolfrey whose quick reactions saw him make up for his midweek errors as he denied Dean from close range.
With the half-time whistle imminent, The Greens found an equaliser when a rehearsed free-kick move saw Hunt take two attempts to cross the ball and, when Tolfrey could only parry his second effort, full-back Vargas pounced on the ball and tapped it in from sixyards.
The second half proved to be a very dull affair with both sides failing to create any match winning chances. O’Leary nearly reproduced Budd’s goalscoring strike but his perfect half volley produced a fine diving save from Tolfrey.
John Maggs withdrew Savage and Tony Nwachukwu for Davies and Peauroux, just after the hour, and the two substitutes combined with the latter shaking of a knock to provide a cross for Davies who headed the ball into the ground, allowing the 'keeper to collect.
Hendon suffered a blow when O’Leary and Mark Knee clashed heads when challenging for a high goal-kick that saw the Greens' midfielder land awkwardly and was rushed to hospital where he was later diagnosed as having suffered a double leg break.
Horsham then suffered a serious injury of their own when a late challenge on Page saw him withdrawn with suspected knee ligament damage.
To further compound Horsham's misery Page's replacement, Ian Payne, was soon forced out of the action himself with a pulled hamstring which left the hosts to play out the remainder of the match with 10 men.
From the free-kick awarded for the foul on Page, Horsham created their best chance of the half when Tolfrey pumped the ball up field and Charman met the ball first time, crashing a header against the crossbar from 12 yards and behind for a goal-kick.
Peauroux then put his cross on the head of Davies who placed his free header wide of the post and the striker would have been kicking himself when, two minutes later, Hendon created the match-winning goal when Hunt latched onto Busby’s pass and his shot across goal came off of the inside of the post.
The Greens then played out seven minutes of injury time to ensure a vital win that would ease their relegation worries but it left the Hornets wondering what is left of their play-off hopes.
Report: Ben Tennant Photos:John Lines
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