Horsham manager John Maggs has given up on striker Rob Collins ever playing for his side again.

The volatile forward was on the team sheet for the disappointing Ryman Division One South defeat by Leatherhead at Queen Street, but pulled out just before kick off with a back injury.

It is the third match in a row the former Crawley player has missed after demanding to be put on the transfer list.

He failed to turn up for a trip to the Met Police and was missing from last week's home win over Epsom despite being fit.

Earlier in the season Collins quit the club saying he wanted a break from football, but returned a week later.

Manager John Maggs admits he does not expect to see Collins playing for Horsham again this season.

He said: "I don't think he will play for us again. He hurt his back in the warm-up, but basically he didn't want to play. It's not a question of losing patience with him it's more of a question of giving up on him now.

"It all depends what mood he turns up in. If the right Rob Collins turns up then any club would love to have him in their team.

"He is a quality player and I would like him to play but I don't think he is going to."

Collins has scored 20 goals this season and he was badly missed in the first half as Horsham struggled to put away numerous chances against the relegation threatened visitors.

A 32nd minute strike by Gavin Geddes never looked enough to make the game safe for Horsham and that proved to be the case as Leatherhead hit two late goals to snatch the three points.

Maggs added: "In the first half we started really well and in the first quarter of an hour the game should have been dead and buried.

"We only got what we deserved with our second half performance. We tried to have as much of the ball as we possibly could but kept giving it away cheaply and that was our downfall."

It took a superb 25-yard effort from substitute Marc Charles-Smith in the second minute of injury time to win it for the visitors and end Horsham's run of three consecutive wins.

The goal came 13 minutes after Leatherhead had equalised through Iain Hendry who swept home Jon Lloyd's free kick.

The result leaves Horsham in third place and eight points behind leaders Carlshalton who have a game in hand.

Maggs is confident his side can bounce back from the defeat. "I am very disappointed because we had fought our way back in the league with three wins on the spin," he added.

"It is one of those results which are flying around at the moment and we will bounce back from it.

"Three weeks ago, everyone had written us off and we put three wins together to get ourselves back in there. I think any one from eight sides could finish second, so although we are disappointed we will just keep trying to get as many points as we can."

Goalscorer Geddes thinks the defeat has blown any chance Horsham had of winning the title this season.

The former Albion striker scored his 32nd goal of the season when he latched onto a perfect through ball by Lee Butcher and slotted into an empty net at the second attempt after visiting keeper Justin Gray had parried his firsteffort.

He said: "We are so disappointed and I think that is it now. If we are going to have any chance we would need to win eight on the spin which would be very difficult, so at the end of the day that is more or less it.

"We won three in a row before this, but our confidence is not as high as it could be. It should be really high, I don't really know how to explain it, but our passing is bad and we keep giving away soft goals."

Second place is still up for grabs for the Hornets as just two points separate them from Sussex rivals Bognor who have two games in hand.

Geddes, however, fears promotion may also be beyond his side.

"I think we would be happy with third place at the end of season," he added.

"It would be disappointing considering where we have been, but we are not playing that well at the moment so we would be happy with that."