Boss Hugo Langton has resigned himself to the near-certainty of relegation after Horsham’s winless league run extended to 25 matches.
Former West Ham and Albion striker Tony Stokes hit a hat-trick as Horsham suffered another 5-0 defeat at in-form Concord Rangers, leaving the Hornets 16 points from safety with only 14 matches left.
That deficit will take some clawing back as Horsham have collected only 11 points all season – more than half of which were in August.
Langton said: “There are not too many positives you can take from a 5-0 defeat. To be honest, aside from the performances of Tony Nwachukwu and Dean O’Keefe, I don’t think there were any.
“It was great to have Tony back again and he played the whole of the second half and looked really lively. Dean only had a quarter of an hour, but he still managed to do more in that 15 minutes than the rest of the front line did throughout.
“That defeat really hurt me. The one thing we’ve been doing recently is competing, but too many of my players showed a lack of competitive spirit and that’s unforgivable.
“I think the boys have got so used to losing that it doesn’t hurt them like it should, but I’m not having that. I hate losing. I hate the thought of going in to work on Monday morning and having my academy players waiting to take the mickey out of me.
“I’m not using it as an excuse, but our preparation wasn’t right.
“I got the boys together for training on Thursday – only to be told, two hours before the start of the session, that we couldn’t train on the pitch because it was heavy after the rain and they (Broadbridge Heath) had two games scheduled for the weekend.
“Instead, we were given a 20 by 20 space behind the goal and I can’t prepare my team for a tough away game in a small area behind a goal.
“I paid someone out of my own pocket to watch Concord last week, to find out areas we needed to work on in training, and I’ve got to ask myself if it was all worth it. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that we just didn’t turn up.
“I’m not one to throw in the towel but, let’s be honest, we’ve got to accept that relegation is virtually a certainty now and that we’re going to be playing Ryman South football next season.
“I know that, the supporters know that and I think the players know that, so my focus now has to be on next season, who we want to keep and who else we want to bring in. It’s now up to them to prove to me that they deserve to be kept on.
“Craig Wilkins and I need to work to ensure we come straight back up next season, not for us to have a mediocre season. If the current players don’t perform, some of them will have no future here.
“I might get criticised for talking about relegation, but it’s next season’s promotion push that I’m focusing on now and anyone who talks of anything different won’t be welcome in my company.”
