Result: Ashford Town 4-1 Horsham YM

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THUUUUUUUUUUUD!!! That was the sound of Horsham YM Ressies coming back down to earth with something of a bang. Following the neat, tidy and compact team performance that had ground out a very satisfying 1-0 victory at Molesey this was pretty much the opposite on a bitterly cold Monday evening in South West London.

Following an hour and three quarters on the M25 preparations were somewhat hurried. Things started well enough with both teams doing their utmost to gain the early authority. It became evident soon on that the hosts were very much up for making amends for going out of the league cup to YM earlier in the campaign. They had an energy and hunger that was going to stood up and be counted.

The visitors were making unforced errors all over the pitch and poor decision making was giving up possession time and time again. This led to a frustrating edge that hasn't featured in YM's play and is something that needs to be exorcised immediately as no good can come from it. Two strikes down the middle due to a lack of pressing from anyone in a YM shirt resulted in a 2-0 score line to Ashford at the break.

The next goal would be critical and a jinking drive into the box from Keiran Greig resulted in the awarding of a spot kick. Skipper Russ Curtis coolly slotted to reduce the deficit to one and there were the early signs of a comeback.

More individual errors, poor positioning, forced passes and missed tackles saw Ashford up the ante and score two further goals to run out convincing 4-1 victors.

A bad day at the office has effectively undone the good work put in against South Park, Carshalton and Molesey with it looking like Met Police and Ashford to finish as the top two and qualify for the last eight. YM have ten days to work on the gaps that were present ahead of their final qualifier, away yet again to Chichester City.

YM: Dumper (Taylor), Spiers, Dixon, Sleat, Lovett (Shurmahi), Lowe, R Curtis, Hunter (Mahadoo), B Curtis, Greig, Leslie