Corinthian Casuals (1968-1983) (A) - RIL2 - Horsham Football Club

The honours and glories of former amateur aristocrats Corinthian-Casuals filled five foolscap sheets of paper, but they were no match for Horsham in this league game, and they went down 4-0 to give the Hornets their first three goal bonus of £25. Homeless, the Casuals played on Tooting & Mitcham’s Sandy Lane ground where, except for a cigar-smoking committee man or two, and a handful of spectators, they received little support. By contrast, Horsham were constantly encouraged and their supporters’ voices, led by the stentorian tones of manager Roy Osborne, echoed through the largely empty stadium.

Mixed with some sweetly-flowing moves that would have graced a far greater occasion were periods when the Hornets forgot they had a midfield and long balls pumped up and over for the forwards were often used by their opponents to launch attacks that gave the defence a fragile look. Nevertheless, most of it was good to watch, especially when the exciting Terry Stanley was in action. ln fact there should have been five on the scoresheet for Ross Gumpright headed against the woodwork and Steve Cosham also came close before getting on target with a right-footer after eighteen minutes, from a Stanley prompt. Barry Steer, who had a shot blocked on the line, and almost scorched the woodwork with a fierce header, deservedly made it two just before the break in a most unusual manner. With Cosham threatening, keeper Walecki made a hash of touching the ball to a team mate and Steer had the simplest of tasks to put the ball into the empty net.

H/T Corinthian-Casuals 0 Horsham 2

Five minutes after the break Steer started a move that went via skipper Colin Newstead to Stanley. He hit a real piledriver the keeper could not hold, and Cosham came from nowhere to net the loose ball. It was then that the Hornets, instead of stroking the ball around in a display of possession football, relaxed and handed the initiative to their opponents with some thoughtless stuff. They were almost made to pay for it, and would have been by a more powerful side, before Stanley rounded off a rousing display with a fine goal from a narrow angle after defender Coulthurst had cleared a Cosham effort off the line.