Carlisle-bound Hornets told: Enjoy every moment of FA Cup adventure

The Horsham players celebrate beating Woking / Picture: John Lines

Horsham’s players and fans have been told by Dom Di Paola to enjoy every moment of their FA Cup adventure.

The Hornets are off to League Two side Carlisle in the first round of the famous old competition next month after a memorable win at home to Woking in last Saturday’s fourth qualifying round courtesy of Tom Kavanagh’s late free-kick.

There’s £20,000-plus prize money and national headlines up for grabs in the first round, which Horsham have not reached since their still-talked-about Cup second round tussle with Swansea 14 years ago, in which they took the League One side to a replay.

Di Paola is happy with the draw – feeling that the main hope in the first round is to be paired with a Football League, while the fact it is away from home turns it into a bigger payday.

And the fans celebrate too... Picture: John Lines

Reflecting on Saturday’s win over National League Woking, the boss told us: “It was a really good day and everyone enjoyed it to the full.

“Then we had the excitement of the draw on Sunday and the lads and the fans have been loving it. We had nearly 2,000 in the ground which was was great to see and we hope many of those keep coming back.

“In the game itself, I genuinely thought we did all right. The first half was pretty even but in the second half they (Woking) improved.