Stocker blames preventable mistakes for heavy defeat

The Green and Whites found themselves 25=10 down at half time despite Charlton Park having a player yellow carded. However, four successive tries for Charlton Park changed the game and this was followed by four more second half tries as Horsham succumbed to a 49-10 defeat. After a positive start, Stocker was downheartened with his side making silly mistakes, and believes that they must improve this area of their game.

He said: “We were below par in terms of our performance. We fashioned opportunities, we were dominant in large swathes, certainly in the first 20 minutes. The fact that our basic skills seemed to elude us meant that some of the opportunities went begging and in my opinion, against the run of play at half time, we were 25-10 down. I know it sounds quite a large margin, but they scored from three attacks in the first half, two directly as a result of errors.”

Stocker now believes these mistakes will have to be ironed out at training, but will face some difficulty in doing so because of Horsham’s amateur status.

He added: “At the end of the day we are an amateur club, our players travel from as fa away as Chichester. We might not get the players on the pitch as regularly as we would like to. It’s one of the things we said to them. You have to be at training twice a week for the foreseeable future because unfortunately, the lack of consistency at training is starting to hurt us on the Saturday. At the level we are at now, you can’t get away with it.”

The Green and Whites took the lead after seven minutes when Tom Johnson was first to react to an overthrown line-out to pick up the loose ball and break through the defence to give an easy run-in for a score to Michael Tredgett which Johnson converted. Horsham failed to capitalise on two pushover try opportunities in the first 10 minutes as the London side hit back before the break. The second half remained scoreless as dogged defence from the Green and Whites held out the home side until the 65th minute when Park scored a further four tries in the final 15 minutes.

Stocker added: “It was very disappointing as a performance but, no disrespect to Charlton Park, the scoreline flattered them,” he added.
“We’ve had a few of those this year, teams that we should have beaten that were sitting above us. Beckenham at home was close, even Dartfordians was close, and they’re sitting in second. There’s always a positive in that the talent is there, it’s just a lack of focus at key moments lets us down.”

Horsham now have a free weekend before a Sussex derby against bottom of the league Crowborough on Saturday, February 11.

Horsham: N.Bell, Grantham-Hill, Barber, Goward, R Tredgett, Smith, O’Rahilly, M Tredgett; Steggles, Johnson, Gonzague, Ordidge, J Bell, Crook, W.Bell. Subs: Carvell, Grant, Clarkson