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Dominic Di Paola praised Horsham for their supreme form over the past six months - and said the Hornets would get even better once his injury-ravaged squad were fit and firing.

Horsham have made two visits to North London in the past week, losing 2-0 at Haringey on Saturday before drawing 2-2 at Wingate & Finchley on Tuesday.

Last season’s 3-0 defeat at Wingate, in March, saw Di Paola issue an apology to travelling fans after saying the Hornets ‘gave up in the second half’.

But since that loss, Horsham have won 12 out of 19 games in all competitions. They have lifted the Velocity Trophy and sit fourth in the Isthmian Premier after eight games.

Dominic Di Paola praised Horsham for their supreme form over the past six months - and said the Hornets would get even better once his injury-ravaged squad were fit and firing. Picture by Steve Robards

Di Paola said: “Our form over the last couple of months of last season and the start of this season, 12 wins out of 19, is a good return for a team of our standard. I’ve no doubt that once we’ve got everyone fit and firing we’ll be really good this year.

“At the moment we’re patching things up and we have to manage expectation. People are beginning to get quite high expectations, which does happen in football. I do think we can do better, especially once everyone’s back. We’ve got Lee Harding and Charlie Hester-Cook out long-term and they’re players that would be in our starting XI every game.

“We’ve got Bobby Price out, Harry Osborne out, [Tom] Kavanagh has Covid, Tom Richards is out, along with Lee and Hester-Cook. It’s a tough ask for the boys but we’ll keep plugging away.”

Two late goals consigned Horsham to defeat at Haringey. In midweek Wingate went in front through Luca Cocoracchio’s own goal before Daniel Ajakaiye levelled. Jack Mazzone gave the Hornets the lead early in the second half but Dernell Wynter restored parity.

Di Paola said: “Saturday, we were okay in the first half, we had a couple of really good chances but we didn’t take them.

“With ten minutes to go, if we’d been a bit more clever and picked up a point, along with the point at Wingate, you would have said we had quite a good week away from home.

“We’ve another couple of tricky games coming up, Bishop’s Stortford [at home] on Saturday then we’re back in North London on Tuesday at Enfield. It’s a tough spell, and we’re not at our strongest.”

Horsham FC boss Di Paola: Our form has been good - but just wait until we're fit and firing