Eastbourne Borough show good signs at Dorking Wanderers – but it’s points they really need

At a glance, the result seems to follow the form book. Dorking, established among the National South leaders – and particularly strong at home. Eastbourne Borough, showing signs of recovery but still not quite established under Widdrington. A home banker?

Actually, the scoreline tells only half of the story. Tommy Widdrington will have been grinding his teeth at the goals conceded, but he saw some patchy but promising spells of pressure by his team, and the result was genuinely in the balance for long spells – Dorking’s final strike came in the 94th minute.

But the other half of the story is Meadowbank. Dorking have suffered only one league defeat - on the first day of the season in August – at their fortress in the Surrey Hills. The club that Marc White built is further along the road to success than the club that Simon Leslie is building.

Wanderers are a club full of perfectly nice people, efficient and well organised – but the stadium layout confines visiting supporters to the furthest corner, without cover, and only on the fringe of the action.

Home fans fill the main stand and they also form a real shield-wall – with a roof – at the eastern end. It can intimidate both officials and opponents.

When Borough’s FA Trophy visit last season went to penalties, the Eastbourne players had to take their spot-kicks against the frantically swaying torches of a few dozen iPhone holders - unsporting but unhindered by stewards.

And this time, Widdrington felt the referee was under pressure from the “home end” when he first denied Eastbourne a very credible penalty, and then early in the second half awarded Dorking a marginal free-kick from which they doubled their lead.

Grasping at straws? Not really: those were match-turning moments. And the margins were pretty fine.

Football should always be about players, human efforts and skills, and not about data. But the statistics at Meadowbank show Borough well ahead 58-42 on possession, doubling Dorking on goal attempts 18-9, and slightly ahead, 344-310, on passes.

But, unlike showjumping or ice-skating, you win no points for artistic impression – only for putting the ball in the onion bag.

30 mins: Dorking’s Charlie Carter is allowed to advance from midfield to strike a low shot aimed at the bottom far corner, which keeper Ryan Sandford would have saved, but for a defender’s deflection. 1-0.

60 mins: Still a very even contest until the ref rewarded a Dorking tumble with a free-kick, just two yards outside the Borough box, which Dan Pybus converted, in front of the roaring home stand,with a peach of a strike for 2-0.

73 mins: Borough’s Harry Phipps advanced from midfield and smashed a stunner into the Wanderers top corner for the goal of the game: 2-1 and Eastbourne hopes rose briefly. But only extremely briefly.

78 mins: That man Carter slalomed through Dorking’s inside-left channel and struck a looping shot which hit the back stanchion and rebounded back out, for what could have been one of those unawarded ghost goals - but the ref was on script this time: 3-1.

The Sports did press strongly, with Jayden Davis, off the bench, showing sublime skill on the left wing to give Dorking’s defence some serious alarm. But the Wanderers are full of experience and they managed the final phase confidently. And then a little final flurry…

93 mins: Davis danced his way in from the wing and angled a left foot shot that squeezed in under the bar to give Eastbourne an improbable sight of a point: 3-2.

94 mins: No dramatic finale, just a jinking run from that man Carter past tiring defenders to slot in his hat trick: 4-2.

Signs of progress, certainly, for Widdrington’s evolving team. But it is points on the board that he really needs.