I thought I’d start the new season with a visit to a favourite ground of mine, Horsham’s Fusion Aviation Stadium, to see Horsham FC of the National League South, open their pre season fixtures with a home game against Eastleigh FC of the National League.

Horsham FC, known as the Hornets and managed by Dom Di Paola, finished fifteenth in the National League South last season as their debut at that level. Tonight presented an opportunity to trial some players and to test out some new signings. The Fusion Aviation Stadium, opened as recently as 2019, holds 3000 with plenty of covered seating and boasts a fine and newly laid artificial pitch and great facilities, including toilets, refreshment stands and a modern clubhouse.

I was particularly pleased to see that Jamie Yilla, whose flair and energy I had seen in my Kent days, at Chatham Town and latterly at Maidstone United, was in the Horsham FC side.

Tonight’s visitors, known by their nickname of the Spitfires, finished seventeenth in the National League in the 2025-26 season. Their manager Matt Gray, who took the reigns in May this year, will be keen to test out new signings such as Ben Drake and Harry Sitwell as he looks to further improve the club where he spent seven years as assistant manager.

The game opened with Horsham enjoying possession and working well to create opportunities up front. Eastleigh’s Temi Eweka also set out his stall early from midfield, winning the ball and creating bright opportunities for counter attack.

Despite early pressure from the home team, which saw them go close to scoring in the opening five minutes, it was Eastleigh FC who broke the deadlock first with Aaron Blair breaking through the offside trap to slot home in the seventeenth minute.

It didn’t take long for Horsham FC to claw their way back into the game with Jack Brivio scoring in the 28th minute with a headed goal from a free kick.

With four minutes left until the break, Horsham’s keeper Sam Howes, slipped when receiving a back pass allowing Hady Ghandour to score into an empty net to put the visitors 1-2 ahead. The teams went in at half time separated by the single goal.

The second half was evenly fought until the fifty eighth minute when Triallist D scored a fine curled free kick to tie the scores at 2-2.

With 86 minutes on the clock and the game dragging itself to full time, Horsham’s Lucas Pattenden found himself in space to make it 3-2.

There was still time for Eastleigh to hit the post and for Rodrigues to narrowly miss making it 4-2 for Horsham FC before the referee blew for fulltime to end an entertaining opening friendly fixture for the season.