Horsham 3-1 Maidstone United - Hume left fuming over Worthless performance

Whilst the two games are poles apart and the England boss will be praising his eleven heroes this evening, Hume was left staggered by arguably his side’s worst performance of the season.

“I told them in the dressing room and I’ll tell you now that only James Pinnock and Elliot Bradbrook can take anything out of that performance,” the Stones joint-boss said ruefully.

And to be fair to Hume he had a point as despite having bags and bags of possession, especially in the second half, all his side had to show for their efforts was Ian Selley’s 28^th minute penalty.

With one eye on a busy couple of weekends in cup competitions to come, the Stones boss, speaking to BBC Radio Kent,  said: “This is our bread and butter, we’re not going to win the FA Cup and if we were to win the FA Trophy it would be like a division two side winning the FA Cup and that hasn’t happened in my lifetime!

“Tonight we were poor and if we want to progress we’ve got to play better than that.”

Harsh words indeed but after witnessing the 90 minutes at Worthing’s Woodside Road (Horsham’s temporary home), you can definitely feel for Hume.

Yes, his side was missing the injured Roland Edge and the influential Jay Saunders (who we send our congratulations to becoming a father), the Stones never really got into their stride and with the Horsham front pair of Evan Archibald and John-Michel Sigere a constant menace throughout, the Stones never really got to grips with their hosts.

Archibald, it was, who opened the scoring on eleven minutes - and with hindsight it set the tone for the evening. Maidstone keeper Andy Walker did well to deny Alex Haddow at his near post but from the resulting corner no-one picked up Archibald, who scored arguably one of the easiest goals he will ever score from two years - his seventh of the season.

The goal forced the Stones into a change of formation, but whilst they were still coming to terms with it, the home side doubled their advantage, courtesy of a low strike across Walker by full-back Mark Knee.

With their pride now severely dented the Stones roared back and when Pinnock was felled by Horsham goalkeeper Paul Seuke, Selley scored from the spot for the third consecutive game. Questions, however, were asked of referee Mr Austin if the card showed to the keeper should have been red in colour rather than the yellow which the official produced.

Maidstone were fortunate not to go into the break two behind and had Walker to thank for an excellent full length save which denied Haddow and an even smarter block to deny Archibald the rebound.

When Selley failed to appear for the second half, the Stones contingent in the crowd of 233 would have been excused if they were a touch apprehensive for their heroes chances and so it proved.

After peppering Walker’s goal with long shots in the early stages of the second half, Horsham sealed the points on 68 minutes when Lee Farell was on hand to drill Haddow’s deep cross into the roof of the Stones net.

Try as they might, the Stones were unable to get back into the game, although substitute Seb Schoburgh did see a vicious shot cleared off the line late on.

Maidstone now forget the league for a couple of weeks - AFC Hornchurch in the FA Trophy this weekend before their big FA Cup tie against AFC Wimbledon.

Given the manager’s comments, I wonder just how many of this side were perhaps thinking of the FA Cup.

Horsham: Paul Seuke, Jack Page, Mark Knee, Andrew Howard, Russell Eldridge, Lee Farell, Jacob Mingle, Lee Carey, Evan Archibald, John-Michel Sigere, Alex Haddow.
Subs: Michael Dale, Joey Collewijn, Tony Nwachukwu, Ian Payne, Rob Frankland.

Goals: Evan Archibald 11, Mark Knee 27, Lee Farell 68

Booked: Paul Seuke 28

Maidstone United: Andy Walker, Nathan Paul, Meshach Nugent, Ben Lewis, Ian Cox, Andy Martin (Seb Schoburgh 72), Ian Selley (Aaron Lacy 45), Kevin Watson, James Pinnock, Lloyd Blackman, Elliot Bradbrook.
Subs: Keelan Mooney, Craig Thompson, Steve Northwood.

Goal: Ian Selley 28 (pen)

Attendance: 233
Referee: Mr Daniel Austin (Bognor Regis, West Sussex)
Assistants: Mr Barrie Small (Bognor Regis, West Sussex) & Mr Neil Baker (Welling, Kent)