"There are times when the manager and coaches have to hold up their hands and take some of the blame," admitted Maggs. "We tried a different formation, played people out of position, and it clearly didn't work. I'm not keen on the 4-3-3 that we tried but, unfortunately, I have to concede that we didn't get the message across to the players as I'd liked and we paid the price. We were dreadful. Really disjointed. There was no shape about us and they wanted it more than us."

Two new trialists were given their chance to shine in the famous yellow and green shirts for this penultimate friendly ahead of the start of the new season. Gambian born Hassan Nyang started in the centre of midfield and Danny Mobsby followed father Lee and uncle Roy by donning the jersey as a half-time replacement for Lee Carney.

As has been the case in the majority of Horsham’s pre-season games, the Hornets failed to get off to a good start with a few misplaced passes and defensive errors, namely a 14th minute Walton & Hersham corner that was floated into the Horsham six yard box and was uncharacteristically fumbled by Rob Tolfrey leaving Jack Page to clear the follow up shot off the goal line with the hosts appealing in vain that the ball had crossed the line.

Defensive errors were to be Horsham’s undoing for the Swans first goal when, two minutes after Austin had seen his weak shot go wide of the upright, he must’ve thought Christmas had arrived early as he watched Anthony Acheampong attempt to pass across the back to Jack Page only to see the Horsham centre back miss his toe poke completely. Finding himself one-on-one with Tolfrey, Austin reminded his former team-mates of his cool head in front of goal and slotted the ball firmly in the bottom right hand corner to put the Surrey side 1-0 up.

This failed to ignite the visitors who created just one notable move to speak of in the first half. A slick set of passes between utility player Russell Eldridge, playing this time at  left-back, Carney, Jack Lyons and Jack Page, saw the ball played back towards the left hand corner from where Eldridge coolly crossed in for Carney but the Horsham playmaker could only look on in agony as his bullet header bolted just over the bar.

The half ended with Nyang losing the ball in his own half to Austin who struck a curling right footed shot which whistled just a couple of inches over the crossbar from the edge of the eighteen yard box.

H/T Walton & Hersham 1-0 Horsham

The home side made six substitutions at the break but it was the introduction of Mobsby for Carney that had an impact on the Horsham side, especially in the air, which was somewhat lacking with the absence of veteran Gary Charman. A slick move started by Mobsby ended with Pat Harding making a break through the Walton defence only for a good tackle see his shot deflected for a corner.

Eldridge provided the delivery which narrowly missed the head of Ben Andrews and fell to the Walton & Hersham right back who started off a promising move for the Swans, ended when a powerful shot went narrowly wide of Tolfrey's upright.

A change for Maggs’ side saw Claude Seanla come on for Acheampong, with Andrews going centre back in the role he was more familiar with in his Worthing days. Seanla battled hard in attack but still the Walton & Hersham defence frustrated the Horsham forwards with Harding's 67th minute shot, saved by Steve Windegaard, proving to be the last chance of the match for the Hornets. James Nicholls also came on for Jack page with Maggs looking on to see what other prospects he can add to the squad for the upcoming season.

A Walton & Hersham break saw Andrews make an error, leaving the Horsham defence exposed two on one but, fortunately, the Swans’ striker failed to see his team-mate and blasted the ball over the 'bar.

More relentless pressure was to come, however, with a long shot which was comfortably saved by Tolfrey and, with five minutes to go, a low ball skimming through the eighteen yard box found substitute Kenny Dwyer who buried the ball hard and low into the left hand corner of the net across Tolfrey's goal from the right. This secured a 2-0 victory for the hosts in a game which the Hornets didn’t particularly deserve to win, and which Maggs would have been disappointed to lose.

For the handful of hardy Hornets followers in attendance, the highlight of the game was to come straight after the goal when Andrews made way for the Horsham 'legend' Eddie French, making his first appearance in the yellow and green shirt since his horrific injury against Staines Town nearly 12 months ago. Other plus points from the game were Lyons’ continued impressive form and the promising play shown from Mobsby in the second half.

All in all a frustrating evening for the Hornets who found the Walton & Hersham team incredibly resilient and very quick to close the team down. With only one pre-season game left against YMCA, fans will be hoping for more of Shoreham and Horley than Worthing and this evening's opponents.

NEXT MATCH: v Horsham YMCA (a) Saturday 8th August ko 3pm