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Horsham end a run of 4 league outings on the road by
welcoming current Ryman Premier Division table toppers Dartford to
Gorings Mead this Saturday for arguably the Ryman Premier Division's
match of the day. The Kent club are runaway league leaders, sitting 11
points ahead of nearest challengers Hastings United having played 3
games less than Tony Dolby's side and would appear to be the odds-on
favourites for promotion to the Nationwide Conference South.
Horsham travelled to Princes Park on the opening day of the season and
took a first half lead, thanks to a stunning free-kick from Russell
Eldridge, only to suffer a wretched 10 minute spell after the break
that saw them concede 3 goals. Pat Harding claimed a late reply but it
wasn't enough as the Darts embarked upon an unbeaten run of 15 league
games to surge ahead of the competition. Inevitably, perhaps, the
first signs of cracks would appear to have begun which will give hope,
not only, to Horsham but also the rest of the chasing pack. Only an
injury time goal saved Dartford's blushes against basement side Bognor
Regis Town who fought out an entertaining 3-3 draw before Dartford
suffered their first league loss, at home to AFC Hornchurch 3 weeks
ago, and Tuesday night brought a surprise League Cup defeat against
visiting Aveley, conquerors of Horsham last weekend.
Perhaps worryingly for Horsham, Dartford possess the Ryman League's
only 100% 'away' record and average just under 3.5 goals scored in
their 7 games to date. The versatile Lee Burns leads the goalscoring
charts but no less than 13 players have found the net for Tony
Burnam's side this season including veteran striker Rob Haworth for
whom Dartford represents his 14th club.
Having put together a decent run of form themselves, the Hornets'
surge up the table has been curtailed slightly by consecutive defeats
at Aveley and Wealdstone but boss John Maggs believes that his players
are up for the challenge posed by the league leaders. "It doesn't
help, playing them on the back of 3 losses but the players won't need
much motivation for this one," he said. "Everyone wants to play
against the leaders. Everyone wants to beat them. They've only lost
once in the league this season and we want to be the second team to do
that."
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