Carshalton Athletic 1 Horsham 2

After the mini-revival of sorts in recent games, Carshalton plunged back into the Ryman League Premier Division relegation zone with a performance on Tuesday night that exposed the problems that have plagued the side for much of the current season.

After a bright start and an encouraging first half, the Robins fell behind as a result of awful defending just before the break and, despite levelling on the stroke of half-time, a dismal second-half performance and the gift of a penalty to the visitors left the home team becoming ever more desperate as the game drew to its conclusion.

Horsham held firm and experienced little difficulty in holding on to their lead to claim all three points.

As on the previous Saturday, Richard Jolly had two early chances, the first from Karl Murray’s throughball that was blocked by Horsham keeper, Josh Pelling, and the second from Adrian Toppin’s pass that passed just wide of the upright.

In between, Steve Williams's free-kick was headed wide by David Ray.

The Horsham defence was under pressure and it looked certain that a goal would come, but another chance was thrown away when Barry Stevens broke away down the left only for his low cross to elude all of the Robins strikers bearing down on goal.

Delando Smith was the first player to be booked for his fierce tackle on Jolly and Charlie Ide, back again in the Robins line-up, followed soon after, but Mr Venamore managed to upset players and spectators alike when he failed to take any action against Mark Knee for a late challenge on Ide.

Horsham’s Tony Nwachukwu was showing plenty of pace down the left and a strong run spelt danger for Carshalton, but his shot on goal flew well over and normal service was resumed.

On 44 minutes, the Robins suffered a setback when a free-kick was given against Ray for climbing on his opponent.

When the ball came in from the right, Ben Andrews was left completely unmarked to head past Nic Hamann and Horsham were ahead.

The lead turned out to be short-lived, however, and, in the time left before the interval, a long ball through the middle gave Pico Gomez the chance to shoot from outside the area.

Whether Pelling lost sight of the ball or whether it took a deflection on the drying pitch was unclear, but Carshalton were back on level terms with all to play for after the break.

Carshalton made a dreadful start to the second half, totally failing to match the endeavour of the visitors and, five minutes in, Horsham were again in front.

Murray’s clumsy tackle on Nwachukwu as he cut into the area was punished by a penalty award and Pat Harding put his fierce kick straight down the middle to restore Horsham’s advantage.

From that point on, the Robins' chances of getting anything from the game faded as the minutes went by.

A move involving Stevens and Ide gave Jolly the chance for a header that lacked any power and Steve Williams’s free-kick following a handball on the edge of the area was cleared by a defender.

Horsham grew in confidence as the game went on, with their defence well marshalled by their captain, Sam Page, but Carshalton’s efforts became ever more frantic and lacking any conviction.

Three games left now and it’s becoming ever tighter at the bottom of the league.

Robins: Nick Hamann, David Ray, Rob Watkins (Lewis Gonsalves), Karl Murray, Justyn Roberts, Adrian Toppin, Barry Stevens (Rashid Kamara), Tommy Williams (Kenny Beaney), Charlie Ide, Richard Jolly, Pico Pelayo Gomez (Kenny Beaney)

Subs not used: Byron Harrison, Luke Badiali