Eastbourne Borough display matches weather at Tonbridge - and fans get an apology

Grey, uninspired, and pretty forgettable. Not simply the Bank Holiday weather, but the Eastbourne Borough performance which matched it. A 2-0 defeat at Tonbridge Angels extended the Sports’ winless run to five games.
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April is the cruellest month, wrote one of England's finest poets – and after the month had ended with Saturday’s frustrating home defeat to bottom club Billericay Town, May has opened with an equally painful afternoon in Kent. All the tougher to take for the healthy number of Borough travelling supporters – well into three figures – who watched in increasing disappointment as their heroes struggled to get out of second gear.

The Angels, who had only just scrambled clear of the drop zone, played with a little more energy and just about deserved the three points – which they had grabbed in the space of a couple of mad minutes just after half-time. The home side were marking their last ever game on grass, before the Longmead turf is ripped up to be replaced by a 3G surface. Not for the first time this season, Borough found a grass surface not quite to their liking, because it slightly slows their favoured quick passing game.

The Sports try to get things moving at Tonbridge / Picture: Lydia RedmanThe Sports try to get things moving at Tonbridge / Picture: Lydia Redman
The Sports try to get things moving at Tonbridge / Picture: Lydia Redman
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But that was not really an excuse. Bloor’s team – as all their loyal supporters know – are well capable of putting any opponents to the sword, and these sub-standard ninety minutes will actually mean very little, if they can recapture their true form in the play-offs.

Those play-offs look very likely to see Borough in sixth place, with a visit to Oxford City on Wednesday 11th May. In Saturday’s final round of league fixtures they entertain Dartford, and their rivals for sixth place, Havant, would need to overturn a six-goal deficit in goal difference to overtake them.

The early action at Longmead was uneventful, Craig Braham-Barrett popping one into the Eastbourne side netting before Charley Kendall’s piercing run produced a dangerous ball across the Angels goalmouth, hacked clear by a defender’s boot.

Kendall was to endure a frustrating afternoon, with desperately thin service. No matter: his scoring ability is proven and he may very well be the decisive factor in the days to come. Behind him, Chris Whelpdale worked vigorously without ever penetrating, while Luke Nippard enjoyed probably the best game so far of his loan spell – always on the move, and using the ball tidily and sensibly.

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Midway through a tedious first half came a rare moment of controversy, when home goalkeeper Jon Henly caught a long punt on the very edge of his penalty area – or more likely, a foot or so outside it. A red card for the popular keeper at that stage would dramatically have changed the script.

And a minute before half-time, Borough very nearly broke the deadlock. Kai Innocent’s right wing corner was met majestically by Whelpdale’s flashing header – dramatically kept off the goal-line by full-back Jerry O’Sullivan.

But as the teams turned around, so did the fortunes. Tonbridge had been marginally second-best, but they were now on the front foot, and they surged ahead with two goals in two minutes.

Neither was a classic, and indeed both were a bit fortunate. Ibi Olutade danced in from the left and poked the ball across the goal area. Lee Worgan dived to smother, but Tom Beere managed to get across him and flicked the ball off the grounded keeper and into the net for 1-0.

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The second goal was messier still. A plundering run from the Tonbridge right finished with a chaotic slither of bodies at Worgan’s left-hand post, and the ball somehow sliced its way off the unfortunate Jake Elliott and into goal.

Forty minutes, then, for the Sports to salvage the game. With Charlie Walker – originally rested – introduced off the bench, and then the lively and enterprising Leone Gravata joining him, the visitors did have the better of the last half-hour. Walker saw a low shot saved at full stretch, and a succession of corners were stoutly defended by the home side.

Then excellent work by Mitch Dickenson found Jake Elliott swerving in behind the Angels back line, but his low pass was hacked clear. Whelpdale, still weaving and carving openings, was twice chopped down, but the free-kicks were fruitless. Then a third free-kick for a foul on Innocent was headed too high by Mitch, and Tonbridge ran the clock down competently as the minutes slipped away.

Bloor and his coaches spent almost half an hour debriefing his team, with the dressing room door firmly shut. His public words afterwards were honest and blunt. “We weren’t at the races in the second half. We didn’t look the side that Eastbourne Borough have been this season. A huge thank you to our tremendous travelling supporters, and apologies to them for what we served up. Some of those players need to look in the mirror this evening.”

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It is testament to the bond which Danny enjoys with his players, that he can afford to express himself so directly. They are honest, mustard keen, and capable on their day of taking apart any team in the division. The manager knows, as they do, that they can put Tonbridge behind them and put the next two opponents to the sword.

Oh yes - and that English poet? TS Eliot, of course - but he also wrote "The end is where we start from. We must always take risks." If the great writer had ever paid a visit to Priory Lane, he would doubtless have whistled up a sporting line. How about: "Football is poetry with boots on..."? At least, it ought to be. But Longmead on a chilly May Monday was a bit more prosaic.

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