Horsham 1 Carshalton 3: Hornets suffer opening game defeat

Athletic looked dangerous when attacking and managed to gain a 2-0 lead at half-time through goals by Mickel Miller and Ricky Korboa.

The visitors then added a third goal with 20 minutes to go netted from short-range by Korboa after a fantastic run by Peter Adeniyi.

Hornets pulled a goal back in the last minute by George Branford.

Horsham handed debuts to six new signings, three of whom have played for them before, goalkeeper Anthony Ender, Lewis Hyde, Matt Whitehead, George Branford, former Crawley Town player Scott Harris, and former Hornets captain Lee Carney.

Carshalton threatened to take the lead when Horsham defender Lewis Hyde cleared a chance off the line from the dangerous Miller.

Visitors’ striker Miller then scored from the edge of the area with a well-taken strike which went through the hands of keeper Ender.

Hornets threatened themselves when former Horsham player Jahmahl King gave the ball away to Dodd, who then set-up Darren Boswell for a shot which flew over the bar.

The Robins nearly made it 2-0 after 25 minutes when Ricardo Panton raced into the penalty area, Ender advanced but only half-cleared as far as Tommy Bradford, who fired over the top.

Charlie Farmer headed the ball up for Dodd to turn and shoot, but his attempt was held by visiting keeper Alex Alexandros Kozakis.

Carshalton increaded their lead to 2-0 at the stroke of half-time when Sekou Kaba got into the box and shot, Ender got his hand to the ball but Korboa was on hand to finish from two yards.

Hornets made their attacking intention clear at the start of the second half by bringing on Charlie Pitcher in place of Harris, but keeping Dodd as the lone striker.

However it was Carshalton who went closest to scoring with two efforts by Miller, which Ender got down to, and then Brendan Murphy-McVey blasted a free-kick wide.

Carshalton went 3-0 up after 70 minutes through a brilliant individual effort by strong central midfielder Peter Adeniyi.

He picked the ball up in his own half, evaded the attention of Whitehead and Joe Shelley to run all the way to the byline and crossed to Korboa to tap-in from the six-yard box.

Branford scored a 90th minute consolation goal for Horsham with a nicely-taken finish.

HORNETS: Ender, Hyde, Whitehead (Lira de Andrade 81), Branford, Jones, Farmer, Shelley (capt), Harris (Pitcher 46), Dodd (Cousins 70), Carney, Boswell.

Unused subs: Lewis, Atkinson

CARSHALTON ATHLETIC: Kozakis, Price (capt), Panton, Adeniyi (Males 75), King, Morath-Gibbs, Bradford, Kaba (O’Toole 70), Miller (Aikhionbare 75), Murphy-McVey, Kordup

Unused subs: Ismail, Gray

REFEREE: Craig Green

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