'Horsham FC's milestone game will be a pinch yourself moment'
Horsham FC, which can trace its roots back to 1871, got promoted as Isthmian Premier League champions last season.Mr Wellings, who said it might take a while for the club's achievement to sink in, acknowledged that a promotion meant facing stronger opposition."If things don't quite go the way we want them to, we know that we'll still go and sing our hearts out and have some fun," the writer and former journalist said.John Dalby, who runs an independent supporters' club, said the game was "a pinch yourself moment" and the team had "captured the imagination" of the town.
He added: "It's just so exciting, so exciting to be part of it, so exciting to be part of a more national conversation when it comes to football."Mr Dalby said he had started to see more people in the town wearing merchandise from the club."That never happened, it's never happened in the first 25, 30 years of me supporting the club," he said.Fellow fan Robert Murdoch said the "butterflies in the stomach" feeling for the game was up there with the side's famous FA Cup ties against Barnsley and Chesterfield.
He added: "The football club has got massively community based and for the town itself it's going to bring in new revenue, more away travelling fans and [it will] showcase the town."
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