Horsham travelled to Carshalton Athletic in the 1st Round of the Ryman League Cup only to come away disappointed. With a delay to the start, due to one of the officials arriving late, Horsham started brightly retaining most of the possession but the final ball was lacking. Within the first 15minutes it was clear the game was going to be a physical encounter . Matthew Whiteford battled hard on the right wing and floated some great balls into the box which kept the Athletic defence on their toes. The midfield paring of the Hutchings brothers, Danny and Adam, worked tirelessly to snuff out any danger while in defence Harry Pleece, Matthew Dingle ,Tom May and Daniel Bryant were looking solid until, on the break, Carshalton scored what turned out to be the only goal of the game with a well taken finish. Horsham still had the most of the play for the remainder of the half but a failure to deliver the final ball when it mattered meant they went into the break a goal down.

The second half saw the Hornets do everything but score; they passed the ball well, worked hard for each other and created many chances. Patrick Surlis and Elliot Hawkes both had decent efforts saved and there were other opportunities that went astray on this frustrating evening. With fifteen minutes to go, Horsham continued to pile on the pressure for the equaliser and Dean Wright could have seen his team into extra time when he was clear through only to see his effort saved by the 'keeper. A couple of minutes later, as Wright was on the edge of the box, he was fouled and with a bad ankle injury had to come off which was a big blow to the Hornets. Michael Dale was introduced on the right and Whiteford pushed to centre forward and Dale immediately caused Athletic problems, swinging decent crosses into the box but the Athletic defence held firm.

After Carshalton won a corner Tom Baxter in the Hornets goal gathered the cross only to be fouled by the Athletic striker. The referee produced a yellow card to the offending player who decided to back chat the official and, with everyone thinking he would be sent off, the ref walked to the Carshalton bench and told the manager to remove him from the field of play or he would send him off. Carlshalton duly obliged, withdrawing the offending player straight away. I don't remember this one in the rule book!!!! Horsham went to three at the back and threw more players up but, with the clock running down, it wasn't to be the Hornets' night .

Manager Ivan Raby said after the game " I found the referee's decision ludicrous at this level of football, though we can't blame him for our failure in front of goal, and three games without scoring is simply not good enough."