Horsham go down to another narrow defeat

After this defeat Horsham drop to sixth in the table with a game in hand on the league leaders, and the margin of error has been almost eliminated if the Green and Whites are to be in the promotion shake up at the end of the season.

Indeed Coolhurst must be an accommodating ground for visiting teams because all three of Horsham’s league reverses have taken place at home.

Horsham started the game at pace looking to erase the disappointment of successive league and cup defeats to Dartfordians and Gillingham Anchorians respectively. After 2 minutes a long kick from Matt Goodsir into the corner forced a five yard line-out which Jonny Ordidge stole at the front and from the rolling maul Rob Grantham-Hill crossed the line for his sixth try of the season.

Anchorians replied with a wave of attacks but were kept at bay by strong Horsham tackling and then man of the match Aled Price countered with a jinking run but was stopped just short of the line.

With most of the game being played in the central third of the pitch, and the Green and Whites having the majority of possession, they were frustrated by conceding a stream of penalties even though they were on the front foot, which allowed Gillingham each time to relieve the pressure.

This frustrated Horsham coach Nick Stocker who said “I am very disappointed. In a game of fine margins we are not getting the rub of the green with decisions at the breakdown and the tackle area when we had the upper hand for much of the time.”

On 26 minutes deep in Horsham ‘s territory, Ordidge broke from the back of the scrum but was tackled and when he laid the ball back Anchorians were first to react to steal possession and force the turnover to level the scores. On the stroke of half time Will Bell slotted a penalty for Horsham to take a lead of 8-5 into the break.

Horsham started the second half looking to extend their lead and soon a penalty had been awarded which looked comfortably with kicking range and captain Adam Day tapped it to himself to take the game to the opposition and unfortunately for the Green and Whites the attack game to nothing.

With Horsham applying the pressure good handling from the three quarters followed by a chip through from Goodsir almost lead to Ryan O’Gorman being put clean through but he was tackled into touch.

Gillingham’s defence was however extremely solid and in attack always looked dangerous when Number 8 Dave Hadris ran hard from the back of the scrum and full back Mark George countered with mazy runs, and on 64 minutes Anchorians took the lead with a try of their own which they failed to convert.

With both kickers having an off day this proved particularly expensive for Horsham, as Bell had a couple of pots at goal in the last fifteen minutes but was unlucky in that with the easiest of the two kicks, just as he had composed himself to strike the ball, it fell off the kicking tee and so he had to rush his second attempt to avoid being out of time.

The Green and Whites failed to trouble the scoreboard in the second half and ran out of time as Gillingham celebrated their narrow victory as the final whistle blew.

Stocker went on to say “We were strong at the scrum and our line-out worked well. I thought we offered the more potent threat and were better with our first phase play. Unfortunately it was a bad day at the office with our kicking. Aled Price was my man of the match and I thought Adam Day and Iain Fisher also had good games.

Horsham’s next game is in the league away to Uckfield on Saturday December 7, who held Folkestone to a draw last week, and will prove another tricky encounter.

Horsham: Day (capt), Grantham-Hill, Barber; Jonny Whiting, Grover; Smith (Carvell 60), Fisher, Ordidge; Bell, Goodsir; Gibbs, Price, James Whiting, O’Gorman (Palmer 65); Johnson