At least we aren’t Rushden!

Well it was another poor performance and nearly an embarrassing result against Ryman Premier side and FA Cup specialists Horsham, but a late Scott Laird strike saved Boro’s blushes and put them into the hat for the First Round draw tomorrow afternoon. Unlike Blue Square Premier rivals Rushden who were knocked out by lowly Evesham today. Horsham came out and played a counter attacking style looking to break forward at every opportunity. They didn’t seem to be afraid of visiting a team 2 divisions higher and seemed to show more commitment throughout. Boro again lacked movement and didn’t finish off the chances that did fall to them.

Graham Westley decided to stick with the same team as last week with just Mitchell Cole replacing the injured Tommy Black. Surprisingly Eddie Anaclet kept his place at left back. I thought he did well last week against Salisbury and deserves a run in his normal position of right back, but that just wouldn’t be the Graham Westley way of doing things would it? Seriously though why makes things hard for ourselves. Scott Laird may have his weaknesses defensively, but he isn’t a bad left back and the team looks so much more balanced with a left footed player playing at left back.

For the first 20 minutes Boro were strolling around as if they only had to turn up to beat Horsham. There didn’t seem to be any urgency and although we had chances which we should have done better with, the visitors had the best chance of the opening exchanges when their no.6 Lee Carney hit a shot just wide. Eventually though Boro did score thanks to Mitchell Cole. The ball broke out to Cole on the left and he shot across goal to give Boro the lead.

Instead of galvanising the team to push on and get more goals, Boro sat back and allowed the Sussex side get back into the game. A lack of communication by both Luke Oliver and Eddie Anaclet let Sigere go through on goal and he finished well to equalise. Horsham now looked up for the game and our midfield pairing of Bostwick and Martin were giving their midfield too much space in behind. They scored again before half-time after more poor defending. Alex Haddow was given too much space on the left hand side before setting up Sigere who was allowed to turn and lay on Farrell who put Horsham in front. Boro were booed off at half time.

Tactically again the midfield seemed all over the place. McMahon, Drury and Cole drifted all over the place in the second half and make little impact in the game. John Martin had a nightmare today and I was shocked when Westley took off Bostwick instead when he brought on Anthony Thomas who had been warming up for about 20 minutes before coming on. Westley also brought on Laird and Willock as he searched for an equaliser and the team looked better once Laird had come on. Boro threatened more on the left and it was Laird who got the equalising goal when his shot nestled nicely into the bottom corner. The celebrations were more of relief than anything else, but Boro will have to improve and quick if they are not to be beat in the replay on Wednesday evening at Worthing’s Woodside Road.