Sevenoaks Town FC lost their first league game of the new season as they let their lead go in an entertaining game at Greatness Park on Saturday, but manager Micky Collins was not too disheartened with the 2-1 loss saying that Horsham deserved the three points.
Sevenoaks took the lead in the 18th minute with a fantastic powerful strike by Frankie Sawyer from outside the area, but Horsham hit back two minutes later when Joe Shelley’s diving header forced the equaliser.
Horsham then probed further and went close with several decent chances, but they had to wait until the 54th minute to take the lead as Lee Harding’s composed finish sealed the points. Sevenoaks pushed hard late in search for an equaliser, but the visitors held on to secure their first league points of the campaign.
Two years ago to the day, Sevenoaks had successfully knocked out Horsham in the FA Cup, however after last week’s record breaking 6-1 cup win over Lordswood, Sevenoaks found themselves plying their trade at Isthmian level for the first time.
Manager Micky Collins reflected on the match saying: “On the balance of play, they [Horsham] deserved the points today, I think it would have been unfair on them if we had got the equaliser”.
“It’s been a tough day at the office, but some we have taken some positives out of it, it’s not all negative, we gave a good account of ourselves.
“We have shown character today, it’s easy to go 2-1 down and fold, we didn’t do that, and we stuck at the task, we tried our hardest to get ourselves a point.”
Just before the match was due to start, Sevenoaks lost striker Kenny Pogue to a groin injury, Collins said: “You can’t afford to lose players of that calibre, especially five to ten minutes before the kick off. We changed it round and went and had a go at them, the first 15/20 minutes I thought we did really well”.
Sevenoaks travel to Folkestone on Tuesday night in the Kent Senior Cup before hosting Bedfont Sports in the FA Cup at home next Saturday with Hastings Town in the league on Bank Holiday Monday.
Looking ahead Collins said: “We’ll put a strong side together for the trip to Folkestone, it will give us a chance to give people some minutes as well. The FA Cup will take priority this week and hopefully we’ll still be in good shape on Monday to put in a good performance against Hastings.
• Midfielder Billy Bennett won the Sevenoaks Sports Man of the Match award for his display against Horsham.
