A game in mid November, In the sun, on Grass! Unheard of but that was our luck this week as we travelled to our furthest away game of the season to take on Eastbourne who had been on a great run in the league of late.

Our boys were up for the game and with some small tweaks to last weeks line up with Oliver coming back into goal, Lewis in the mid with Stan and Dorian back on the right gave us the chance to rotate some players and get some minutes in.

We knew we had to start strong and we probably had one of our best halves of football to start us off. Winning a lot of our duals and getting a lot of joy down the wings through Dorian and Stephen with Sam running riot up front again, causing issues for the Borough CB partnership.

Our defence was solid and Oliver quick off his line to sweep up any long balls that skipped through.

Our two central midfielders did find themselves battling hard and often doing shuttles up and down due to some of the diagonal balls going over the top of them.

In the first half we were extremely unlucky not to have 2 penalties with Sam being taken out from behind and then shoved to ground not long after but In tight games this can make a massive difference. To be fair to the ref, there was also a possible free kick right on the edge of the area he didn't give so at least it was consistent.

The Eastbourne keeper pulled off several brilliant saves from Dorian, Sam, Kieron and Stephen before tipping a shot from Lewis onto the bar.

HT Eastbourne - 0 - TD - 0

After that first half the boys looked to press on and with a few knocks there were some changes needing to be made with Dorian coming off for a bit and Jack stepping into the midfield with Stan.

We started the half strong again creating a few chances and the keeper again keeping the game level. Eastbourne stepped it up in the second half and started to win a few more duals and bought on a few more physical players who held up the ball well and could spread the ball wide and over the top over the fullbacks.

Sam was still having a fantastic game, putting the team on his back in the early part of the half, driving them forward and trying to get our wingers involved but was unfortunately taken out from behind and had to come off. Alafy and Mase came on at this point for Sam and Stephen. Mase doing well to keep the ball on the wing and looking to link up with Dean who was dominating the winger on the right side.

Our defence was holding strong and were being bombarded with cross field passes and balls over the top to chase. Running back towards your own goal can get tiring so a shuffle at the back bought Toby on for Ethan and Cam shuffling out to rb to counter this happening. Stan after having another great game came off and Lewis and Jack paired up in the midfield again.

Toby was solid and with Ryan they were on the front foot, winning nearly every lofted ball that was coming their way.

We had a chance with 5 minutes to go with Dorian going clear on the right hand side after a great through ball from Alafy and after beating his man, played a great cross through into the path of Kieron who turned his man and as he took his shot was taken out from behind! No pen. From this, Eastbourne's keeper sent a long ball over to the left wing with Cam knocking it out for a throw. Not being switched on to the quick throw, we were slow to react and Eastbourne took it quickly before whipping a cross in and the midfielder got his head on the ball and it just slipped through Oliver's hands and over the line. 3 mins left and the boys were gutted.

We pushed for the equaliser but Eastbourne stood firm.

FT - Eastbourne - 1 - TD - 0

A tough one for the boys but against a top side this season they performed so well and will take a few lessons away from this game.#

MOTM- Sam Roadley - Well deserved for Sam as he was the Focal point of the team, Driving us forward, battling for every ball and even leaving with some battle scars for the team. Well done Sam!