Will absolutely take that!

Nice short journey against a team we know a lot about and have already played against this season.

Nice! Never been myself. Expect it'll be all ticket and possibly sell out?

Not sure how many they give to away fans but I'm sure David will come up with the answer... 😉 

Well firstly I have to say there goes yet another cup draw with some cracking potential trips (my main criteria being at least an hour away and somewhere I've never been before!) Would have loved a game on the Isle of Sheppey or at Weston Super Mare for example! However sulk over! And anyway, in this round of the cup I'd probably take the most boring home game if it meant getting into the 1st round proper (for the first time ever) and the chance of playing a League club, maybe with lots of tv money too!

Anyhow, if we couldn't get my dream tie, then I suppose this isn't the end of the world (it certainly isn't the other end of the country, eg Torquay!). What can we say? We play them EVERY single year, it's as regular a pre season friendly as Leatherhead, so excuse me for not getting too excited! 

Add in to that I usually go to watch random Horsham home games 3 or 4 times a season, mainly because it's cheap, local and the facilities are good. It's easy, and the people there are friendly. The park and ride car park is free and just a few minutes walk away (follow the signs for Local Tip lol). So what's not to like. And no huge coach trip or overnight stay for Marc and the team.

Anyway, my whatsapp group chat of away regulars actually seem quite up for it, not seen so much chat about an upcoming game for ages. And the big talk is how many tickets will we get, what does the ground hold etc.

I guess it all depends on whether or not Horsham segregate or not. We've never had segregation for the friendlies we've played there, and have even provided them with some of our volunteer stewards to help out. There's no beef at all between the two sets of fans, indeed the 'Lardy Army' fans actually get on positively well with our lot, which goes back to when they came to Meadowbank once when one of their games was off!

Of course if Horsham sell their match tickets online and could easily let people choose between being home or away fans (it's the same software as ours), so then they will know how many of us there are. And if it's 400, 500 or even 600 I can't see it not being segregated. You can't have a sellout crowd (or near to a sellout crowd) changing ends in those sort of numbers as nobody would be able to move!

I guess if they know it's (say) 450 Dorking fans and they do choose to segregate, then they just then put up a barrier at the appropriate point based on allocating appropriate space for the numbers in the away section. If they do segregate then the away turnstiles are the ones they almost never use, situated by the players 'tunnel'. And that would presumably mean Dorking fans would be located along the 'dugouts' long side of the pitch.

If they segregate the Dorking fans they would also have to bring in separate toilets and some sort of food and drink unit into the segregated area.

So we'll just have to wait and see how it goes, but on the positive the usual price at Horsham is £13, and they do a good enough printed programme.

As for their capacity, well it was circa 2000 when the ground opened but in the last 6 months or so they've not only installed a very smart tv gantry but also extended the metal terracing both behind the 'far' goal and the standing unit on the side. So it's more like 2500+ now surely.

Best tips - if driving there, get to the park and ride (park and walk!) car park (a short walk from the ground) nice and early before it fills up. And get your match tickets nice and early - in case there is a limit on how many away tickets they are selling, as it wouldn't be as fun if you have to watch from a home section.

I'm almost excited about it now!

Never been to Horsham, so looking forward to this. Had a quick look on google maps and it seems the ground is a couple of miles away from the station. Plenty of buses run down to the ground according to the Horsham website. 

Let's get as many down there as possible and fingers crossed finally reach the goal of the First Round Proper, and the hopefully draw a big team at home

Yep, I’ve only been to Horsham for shopping I think so I am excited for this one. New ground but more importantly a decent chance of getting through to first round proper.  £9k for winners of this one and potentially much more with a home draw if we get through. 

Horsham have just tweeted that they have to liase with DWFC and the police before they decide on / announce any ticketing or other arrangements

Wonder if tv are looking to show the game? It's 'international break' weekend, so the usual Saturday 3pm tv blackout probably doesn't apply (?)

Below is a plan of their ground from when they last did ground improvements and added / extended terraces (additions in yellow)

The 'away' turnstiles (for when they do segregation) is shown with the red X

Essentially, assuming it is segregated, we'd have to be situated on the 'dugouts' side with maybe a bit of space in front of the clubhouse too, up to the clubhouse end goal?

Which wouldn't include any seats as far as I can remember.

EDIT - Considering there were 323 Dorking fans at Notts County away last season (as an example) then a sensible and realistic away allocation for Dorking fans would be in the region of at least 500 tickets, with Dorking given the tickets to sell to their season ticket holders, away regulars etc as priority fans. That would still leave in excess of 1500 tickets for Horsham supporters, who average 900 at home games.

How many does the ground hold in total? Are we going to fill it, between us?

@miller09 I'd be really surprised if it doesn't sell out. Think the capacity is around 2,000 and I'd imagine we could comfortably sell at least 600, probably more.

And I also think TV might be interested - isn't it just BBC at this stage? If so, they usually go for a midday kick off.

Posted by: @miller09

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How many does the ground hold in total? Are we going to fill it, between us?

Horsham put on their website article that they expect a sell-out.

If they give us 500 (what we took to Woking last season after all), they should easily sell 1500 ish. They got that for their last home game of last season against Brightlingsea.

Their home league record attendance at that ground is 1846 on April 18th 2022

In the qualifying rounds is the only tv coverage 'BBC red button' at midday or 12.30?

Or would that time not have to be adhered to because of it being an international weekend, so no 'Saturday 3pm tv blackout' ?

Just had a thought - will shareholders get priority for the Horsham tickets? It was supposeduly one of the 'perks' for buying shares?

@dorking-eagle Wouldn't surprise me if they have two televised games that day due to it being international break. Could have one early and one late.

Looks like most people think that Dorking (and possibly Gateshead) could be the TV choice.

If it was me I would show Hereford (Ronnie Radford and all that) v Rochdale (just dropped down from the EFL)

But I never guess these things right.

Interesting that Marc said in todays video update about our 'allocation' (he used that word) which would suggest in order to have an allocation, there'd be segregation.

Apparently they haven't bothered with it previously when they hosted Woking at the same stage though. 

Had a look into it and their ground capacity is just 1,980

They got planning permission in 2022 to both add and several metal terracing units but incredibly they didn't ask the Council to grant the increase in capacity that the extra terracing would actually afford them!!!

This from the planning documentation: (click on link)