Hornchurch boss Steve Morison ready for big opening week

Hornchurch boss Steve Morison does not want their first game of the Isthmian League Premier Division season to be an ‘anti-climax’.

Urchins head to Horsham to start their 2023-24 campaign, which is also the club’s centenary season.

They ended their pre-season with a 1-0 victory over Millwall Under-21s at Bridge Avenue, which ensured they remained unbeaten in six outings.

And Morison is hoping to maintain that momentum with the competitive action getting underway, with home games against Margate and Carshalton Athletic also coming up.

“Pre-season doesn’t matter, it’s about getting us to the first game of the season in a fit and healthy shape and the majority of the players are,” he told the club website.

“We just need to take that positivity now and the performances into the first league game.

“We don’t want it to be an anti-climax, we want to get there at Horsham and it will be a good game.

“We’ve got a big week. Three games, two at home.”

Emmanuel Harvest scored the only goal of the game against the young Lions, firing home from the edge of the box on 12 minutes.

And Morison took plenty from the contest, adding: “Really pleasing. It was a competitive game as we all saw, both teams gave everything and really thank them for coming down.

“It was a good test for us and stuck at it right until the end.

“We scored a good goal in the first half, really disappointed with our play in the final third, we’ve got to be better.

“But the pleasing is that we created a lot of chances and all come from being in a really good shape and we managed to limit Millwall’s opportunities, so a pleasing afternoon.”

It meant Urchins finished pre-season with three wins and three draws and Morison – having succeeded Mark Stimson as manager this summer – was grateful for the support shown during the past few weeks.

“It’s been really enjoyable,” he said.

“We’ve tried to put some things in place to make us a little bit better, I thank Alex [Sharp] for all of that and Colin [McBride] for helping us out.

“It’s been really good and we’re really pleased.

“There’s so many good people at the club, Ronnie [Hanley], Tel [Fisher], Gary [Hall]. There’s loads of good people, who really do help us all out.

“Obviously, pre-season is done now and it’s onto the real stuff.”