With a gliding pace, height, clever off-the-ball movement and a confident finish Ashley Nadesan is already a well rounded forward but his best attribute in Horley Town’s 8-1 thrashing of Chessington was his relationship with Richard Wetton and Leyton Regan.

I was a The New Defence on Thursday night to catch Nadesan’s performance in a game originally scheduled to take place in Chessington. But I wasn’t alone in making a last minute diversion to Horley. There were a couple of scouts at the game specifically to see the exciting young striker who has already attracted the attention of, and been on trial with, Millwall.

In the first half Horley blurred between 442 and 433 as Wetton frequently joined in overloading the Chessington defence from his wide-right role.

Time and time again in the first half Nadesan used his head to knock-on long balls into the channels for the on rushing Regan and Wetton to run on to and it was not only his technique to guide the ball onto those runs but his understanding of where they would be that impressed me so much.

Otherwise Wetton and full-back Scott Robson would combine in over and under laps down the right before setting up a through-ball for Nadesan to convert.

The fluidity of what was often a front three and the speed with which Horley found them meant Chessington’s high and unprotected defence were pulled out of shape and beaten repeatedly in the opening 45. Manager Anthony Jupp could be happy to simply have such a talented forward in his squad but he goes beyond that in setting Horley up in the way which best makes use of Nadesan’s attributes.

Nadesan was played through by his team so often, and Nadesan so keen to impress in front of the scouts by fighting for every loose ball, in the first half that he was visibly tired early into the second half. Chessington managed to disrupt the control Horley had over the game but momentary lapses from the tired and demoralised Chessington meant Nadesan was still able to bring his match tally up to 4 goals and 2 assists. He also used his hold up play to come deep and on to the left flank to help his team out of trouble by providing an outlet when Chessington put Horley under pressure.

Norwich City and Brighton and Hove Albion are said to be interested in Nadesan but I can’t help but see the similarity in Nadesan’s skill set and that of Harry Kane who’s loan at Millwall was foretelling of the success he is now finding at his parent club.