Horsham crashed to a heavy defeat against Conference South Lewes, but only had themselves to blame for falling to a side that showed little more than endeavour and some first class finishing.

The Dripping Pan has undergone a transformation over the past few years, with a smart, new stand replacing the shack on the hill, and the pitch looked to be in good shape as the game kicked off in the evening sunshine.

It was a shaky opening five minutes for the visiting Hornets who could not find their stride and allowed the visitors to run rings round them without causing any major problems in front of goal. It was Jay Lovett who settled Horsham’s nerves by winning the ball in midfield, striding forward, and then driving a 25-yard piledriver only narrowly over the bar. From then on, Horsham took the initiative. On eight minutes, Lovett played triallist Craig Davies through and the forward beat two men on the left before playing the ball across the goalmouth which was well intercepted by Lewes goalkeeper Chris Winterton. A minute later Lovett crashed in another shot and the lively Sam Tucknott embarked on a mazy run into the Lewes penalty area before laying the ball off to John Westcott who sent his lob just over the bar. With all the pressure coming one way it looked as if a goal must come, but when it did, it came at the other end. Out of the blue, George Jones collected a clearance, ran unchallenged through the midfield, beat Ben Andrews, and then somehow managed to fire the ball past Mark Zawadski with two Horsham defenders pressing him.

The strike livened up the hosts and the Horsham charge was stopped dead in its tracks; the midfield reverting to frustrating negativity with the ball being played backwards more often than not and the increasingly frustrated forwards being forced to drop back to try and gain some possession. With the Lewes players quick to challenge and to work back, this left the Horsham defence under pressure and the forwards outnumbered whenever the ball managed to reach them. It was no surprise, then, when Simon Wormull was able to play Rob Gradwell clear through from a quickly taken free-kick and the centre-forward capably buried the ball into the far corner of the net on the half-hour.

H/T Lewes 2 Horsham 0

With Jack Page replacing Tom Graves and Dean Wright coming on for Tom Lyons, Horsham started the second half in a more positive mood and Tucknott embarked on another incisive run that led to him being sandwiched in the area, with the referee immediately pointing to the spot. Unfortunately, the winger blotted his copybook by taking the kick himself and a weak effort saw Winterton save easily to his right. Horsham continued to press and the eager Wright sent a nice lob narrowly over the top following some impressive build up play.

With Kieron Thorp replacing Zawadski, whose last contribution was to keep out a sharp shot from the Lewes right wing, Wright continued to cause problems for the hosts, his flying header from a left wing cross sailing narrowly wide before he was unceremoniously bundled over by the goalkeeper right on the edge of the box, with Mark Knee’s free-kick being hit straight into the wall.

Patrick O’Sullivan replaced Craig Davies on 75 minutes; the former Morecambe striker having shown some good touches and a willingness to work, and two minutes later Westcott was withdrawn for Adam Hutchings. The young midfielder had three attempts at goal in his short spell on the field, but it was Lewes who found the net again. Steve Sargent twice played the ball backwards to his defenders as the Rooks’ forwards moved up quickly to apply pressure, and possession was lost to Tom Murphy who crashed a shot past Thorp into the far corner. Murphy nearly repeated the feat moments later in exactly the same position, and it was nearly 4-0 when a low ball was played right across the Horsham goalmouth without a forward on hand to knock the ball over the line.

3-0 appeared flattering to the Lewes side, but it is clear Horsham have issues to address before the season proper finally gets underway.