Eastbourne Borough’s goal rush leaves Farnborough flagging: Sports signal they mean business at season’s sharp end
A breathtaking half-hour of brilliant football brought four goals and three points towards Eastbourne Borough’s mounting promotion campaign, as visitors Farnborough were demolished at the ReachTV Stadium on Saturday.
On Non-League Day, a shimmering bright afternoon attracted almost 1600 spectators to Priory Lane, where the Sports are unbeaten all season in National South. And Albion season-ticket holders tempted by Borough’s cut-price offer must have been astounded by the quality of football. For comparison, tickets for Brighton’s next home league game, versus Aston Villa, are on offer from some agencies for £325 each! A mere sixty-five times pricier than last Saturday’s football fiesta at the ReachTV Stadium…
Borough had begun the afternoon four points off leaders Worthing – who were to lose, surprisingly, 2-0 at Welling United. And with visitors Farnborough in comfortable mid-table, home expectations were high. But Spencer Day has been at the helm of the Hampshire club for well over a decade: he knows the league inside out, and he builds teams of experienced battlers.
And so it turned out – in the first half at least. Spencer is low on playing resources right now, and he had named only three substitutes. But the visitors set up with a solid shape and a physical barrier. Early on, Borough’s Mr Consistency Kai Innocent, sped forward from his left-back slot and set up Jason Adigun, whose rasping diagonal strike was only just too high.
Then - from a lovely long pass by skipper Dom Odusanya - Innocent, enjoying a bit of licence to get forward, opened up the left flank and played in Jayden Davis, whose swift strike found the side netting. No goals yet, but an enterprising start.
Midway through the half, Farnborough turned up: Joe Haigh burst between hesitant defenders on the Eastbourne right and was clear on goal, but his angle was narrow and he shot low past the far post. And within a couple of minutes, the visitors could not quite force the ball in after a frenzied snatch of action resembling a lunchtime playground twelve-a-side – remember those?
But sanity returned, and the red-and-white Borough returned to the attack, while the blue-and-yellow Borough did all they could to manage the game, slow down the restarts and preserve the nil-nil. It’s all in the script, and the Sports needed a breakthrough.
Yahaya Bamba’s sheer pace was playing havoc with the visitors’ plans, though – and Sonny Hart copped a yellow card for a concrete block on him – and Bamba almost found the killer ball for George Alexander, but Jack Turner was swift off his line to deny the Sports’ top scorer.
Turner himself – briefly a villain to the vocal Pink Army ranks behind the River End goal – is among the most experienced keepers in non-league, and also a man long remembered for the Pink Jersey campaign which Jack initiated when his mum developed breast cancer. There is pink, and pink, and Jack deserves respect wherever he plays.
But sentiment aside, there was still a crucial match to be won – and Murray’s men reached half-time knowing that a goalless draw would simply not be sufficient. The early second-half exchanges saw close calls at both ends, Odusanya’s shot saved by Turner and then Haigh latching on to a ball over the top, only to hit his effort straight at Joe Wright – a rare sight of action for the home keeper.
That moment was the closest Farnborough would come to lowering Eastbourne’s colours. Just a minute later, the Goal Rush began…
All of us, always, look for perfection. Take the perfect photo, cook the perfect omelette, sink the perfect putt. Or score the perfect goal. From Borough’s clutch of four excellent strikes, it is hard to pick just one: but let’s have a try.
54 minutes: A yellow throw smartly intercepted by Camron Gbadebo, whose header forward found George Alexander – but policed by both Farnborough centre-halves. No problem: snaffle the ball away as two defenders collide in the empty space he has vacated, and in on goal. But George has a football intelligence as sharp as his actual finishing, and as Turner narrowed the angle, Borough’s centre-forward slid a perfectly weighted pass across the goalmouth for Jayden Davis, whose emphatic finish left the keeper helpless. 1-0.
65 minutes: and if the opener had come from smart teamwork, the next strike belonged to one man. With the ball at his feet and a channel to run into, Courtney Clarke is probably the most dangerous attacker in the division – and right now he is loving every moment. Again, the excellent Camron Gbadebo was provider, finding Courtney wide on the right touchline. One, two, three touches took Clarke infield and opened up an angle to hit the bottom left corner of the visitors’ net from twenty yards. 2-0.
69 minutes: what a signing Jason Adigun has proved since arriving from Dagenham! Jason won his own ball on half-way, then exchanged exquisite short passes with Alexander to race in on goal: three little Futsal touches, a swerve past the keeper and a flick into the bottom left corner of Turner’s goal. 3-0.
83 minutes: Skipper Dom Odusanya swung a raking ball out to Davis on the left touchline, and the young wide man darted in behind floundering defenders to slide a low pass across the goalmouth, where substitute Michael Klass added impertinence to injury by back-heeling the ball over the line at the back post. 4-0..
Best goal? Sorry, readers, it’s the reporter’s privilege – and that flawless interpassing by Adigun for the 3-0 was very marginally the best of an excellent bunch.
A rapturous Priory Lane crowd roared greedily for more, but the three points had been decisively claimed. Farnborough in disarray, Eastbourne in dreamland, and the diminishing number of sceptics among the Borough-watchers were shedding their disbelief. This was more than three points.
What comes after the Goal Rush? Six games to play. And very possibly a tense fortnight of play-offs. But this was a declaration of intent, and on this form there is nothing to fear from the rest of the chasing pack. The National South title, outright, is a perfectly realistic target.
Eastbourne Borough (3-5-2): Wright; Gbadebo, Kensdale, Innocent; Davis, Adigun, Odusanya, Davis (Green 83); Clarke (Barry 63), Alexander, Bamba (Klass 63). Unused subs: Diarra, Shamalo
The reaction
Borough owner Simon Leslie: “Farnborough came to give us a game, but I saw the quality shine through in the second half, and that’s what we’ve been working for. We are a young, fit team playing beautiful football. It’s all about momentum now. This time last year we needed grit to get out of relegation, and we are using the same qualities now to aim for promotion. Six games, six finals now!”
Borough manager Adam Murray: “We kind of played into their hands in the first half. It was very stop-start and scrappy. In the second half we changed one or two things – we got the ball rolling, which was key. Today we showed what good players we have in that final third. It is a pleasure to see the boys playing with that much freedom, because when they do that, there is not much that can stop them. What we have to do now is make sure that is consistent – and to be fair, over the past two months we have been scoring goals.
“It’s exciting, it’s a different pressure. I said it to the boys: every Saturday at quarter to five, everyone will check the results and there will be a bombshell somewhere. (Such as Worthing’s 0-2 defeat on Saturday at Welling United.) Each week from now, we have to make sure that we are not the bombshell. If we can be consistent and secure our results, everything around can be shaking, while we just stay focused and stay solid. And we’ll end up in a good place.”
Borough centre-forward George Alexander: “If it has to go into the play-offs, then it has to. But we just need to be consistent, and we can win these “six cup finals” that are left. We were nil-nil at half-time and the Gaffer just said: more of the same, but with better quality. It’s about everybody in the team – we were still nil-nil, and Joe (Wright) has made a terrific save – and it’s because of that save, that we went on to win 4-0. We’re all up for this and we all believe in each other!”
Farnborough manager Spencer Day: “Eastbourne were the better team, but we lived with them for almost an hour – and we had the best chances in the first half. Fifty-five minutes, and our striker (Joe Haigh) is clean through and shoots straight at the keeper. Then the first Eastbourne goal is an absolute game-changer, and a gift from us, with our two centre-halves colliding with each other!
“Until then, our game plan is going to plan. And from that moment, it was a slaughter, and it was only about how many Eastbourne would score. So it was all about that first goal – a very bizarre game and 4-0 is hard to take!”