Will the Hornets slay another giant?

In the FA Trophy, Horsham make the long trip to the English Riviera to take on Torquay United. The Hornets have already defeated two National League South sides in cup competitions this season, but this may be their most difficult task yet, as their hosts, in third place, are yet to taste defeat on their own patch and, if there has been a Horsham flaw this season, it has most definitely been their away form. That said, if the visitors play as well as we know they can, they’ll feel they have a good chance of another famous victory. 

By the way, travelling fans, there’s a fabulous fish and chip shop near the ground on St Marychurch Road! 

Right, back to our bread and butter (which would go well with those fish and chips), Lewes, Folkestone Invicta and Hendon all have the chance of leaping into the Pitching In Isthmian Premier top five tonight.

Lewes welcome Dulwich Hamlet to the Dripping Pan, and thoughts will be with Rooks man Marcel Mcintosh, who suffered a broken leg in the closing stages of their match at Cray Valley PM on Saturday. We hope you’re back with us as soon as possible, Marcel. 

The Rooks were seemingly coasting to a two-nil win at the Millers on Saturday, which would have been a superb result, but of course the match was abandoned after the injury occurred. Lewes have been rather hit and miss recently, but they did defeat Canvey Island last time out so were close to two wins from two, and they will hope to pick up another three points- particularly as their visitors are in decidedly mixed form. After Saturday’s defeat against the leaders Hamlet have only three wins from eleven, which is why they’ve slipped to twelfth place. Last season saw them defeat the Rooks twice in the League, and lose to them in the FA Trophy- each of those matches ending two-nil.

Folkestone Invicta head north (to be fair, they head north for almost every match) to take on Potters Bar Town. Invicta saw a four match winning run come to an end with a narrow- and very late- defeat at Whitehawk ten days ago, and another victory could lift them into the top five; whilst the Scholars got back to winning ways last time out after seven winless matches, and would go level on points with their visitors with victory. Both of last season’s meetings ended in draws, but the Scholars have only beaten Invicta once in ten attempts. 

Hendon suffered the trauma of seeing their long-serving boss depart last week, and will hope that it won’t affect the team to much as they travel to Aveley to play Hashtag United. The Greens, three points away from the top five, lost narrowly to Billericay Town last time out, but prior to that were four unbeaten with four consecutive clean sheets, so will hope to quickly return to that form. The Greens achilles heel, however, has been their form on the road- still without a travelling away win- so the Tags will hope to capitalise on that, although conversely they’ve been better away from Parkside. They’ve been in very good form of late, Saturday’s Trophy defeat at Hampton & Richmond only their second loss in ten matches across league and cup. 

Chatham Town are beginning to look much more like the side that swept (almost) all before them last season. The Chats are nine games unbeaten, scored twelve goals in their last two, and will head to Cheshunt full of confidence as they look to reduce the four point gap between themselves and the top five. The Ambers have slipped into the bottom four. They’ve drawn their last two, but have only one win from six- and start the day three points from safety, albeit with two games in hand over the two sides directly above them. Victory would see them climb to seventeenth on goal difference. 

Cray Wanderers are three points clear of the bottom four, assisted by that narrow win at Bowers and Pitsea on Saturday. Wands are at their Flamingo Park this evening, Chichester City the visitors- and Wands will go above City in the table if they can pick up three points. The visitors have only one win from six, and although they are scoring lots of goals- only six clubs have scored more- are conceding far too many. Only one club- bottom side Bognor- have a more leaky defence.