Eastbourne Borough head west – but hope their play-off hopes don’t go west

The West Country club’s legendary Twerton Park ground nestles in the Mendip Hills a mere 186 miles from Priory Lane – plus a dozen extra miles in an unavoidable westward loop to escape the Roman city’s traffic gridlocks. The Borough coach will be on the road at dawn, and home sometime before midnight – but will there be three National South points safely on board?

“When you travel that far, you really don’t want to come home empty-handed,” says Borough manager Danny Bloor. “There is always a useful bit of bonding on the longer trips, and as a squad, we are in confident mood.”

The West Countrymen picked up only two points from a possible nine over Christmas, and they are still missing their chosen strike force of Cody Cooke and Alex Fletcher – the latter still making slow but definite progress after his horrific head injury when colliding with the perimeter wall at Dulwich Hamlet in September. But they did steal the points at the SO Legal Stadium with an August smash and grab raid, turning a 1-2 deficit into a 3-2 victory in stoppage time.

Bloor will select from a full squad, other than striker Jake Hutchinson, whose half-season loan from Colchester United ended this week. “Jake has given us great service and done himself great credit,” commented Danny. “His performances and his goals for us were invaluable and we wish him all success as he now takes the field one step higher, at Aldershot.”

The Gaffer is known to have one or two irons in the fire, and has not ruled out another signing to keep the goals flowing. But he has confidence in his current players. “A successful team needs goals from all over the place. In Greg Luer – who was injured early season when we first signed Jake – we have one of the finest strikers at our level. Charlie Walker is back, Shiloh Remy and Leone Gravata are on fire.”

And the door might just be opening for another youngster to make his name. Fletcher Holman, who is dual registered with Eastbourne Town – and scored that dramatic derby winner against Eastbourne United on Boxing Day – has already pulled on a first team shirt. “Fletcher is a player whom we rate very highly, and he can make his mark in the second half of the season.”

Certainly, with the Sports in a handy eighth place and 66 points still to play for, 2023 can prove as successful as 2022. But what about all those miles still to cover on the road?

After the Bath City long haul, the Sports must head for Bognor Regis Town on Tuesday night (10th) in the third round of the Sussex Senior Cup – and even that “local derby” is a one hundred mile round trip, the longest in the draw. The competition is one which Borough always take seriously, and Danny will probably mix in some of his promising youngsters alongside experienced first-team regulars.

An intriguing home fixture on Saturday 14th, when Worthing arrive at the Lane for a National South fixture which might well have been a Christmas or New Year highlight. Instead, the league computer paired the Sports with Havant, and sent the Rebels up to Hampton and Richmond. Many moons ago, club secretaries would wait impatiently for the then league secretary, Denis Strudwick, to publish a fixture list which – on apocryphal evidence – he would compile with a sheaf of little slips of paper spread across his kitchen table. Chuckle if you will – but at least Denis could always spot a nailed-on certainty for a local derby…

But the away trip which will really prompt groans of resignation comes on Tuesday 17 January, when the Sports must make the 410-mile round trip to Taunton Town. A lunchtime departure and a 3am return will test the stamina of players and officials, not to mention your Herald reporter. The game had originally been scheduled for the September weekend when fixtures were called off for the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

And then the month of January rounds off with a home game against Hungerford Town, and a crawl through the South London traffic to Dulwich Hamlet. A thousand miles on the road? The Proclaimers should write a song about it.