Full house will watch Eastbourne Borough take on Worthing in Sussex’s biggest non-league game in years

A final batch of about 250 tickets was snapped up on Tuesday, taking the expected attendance to some 3,300 – and no tickets will be available on the gate for the National South game between the two Sussex contenders.

CEO Alan Williams has one particular request: “Please plan to arrive early! Our turnstiles will be open from 1pm rather than the usual 1.30 and people can pick their spot and get themselves into the atmosphere. We have six different outlets within the ground for food and drink, and there will be pre-match entertainment.

“Both clubs have a great set of fans. We know that our supporters like to be able to move around the stadium, choose which goal to get behind, and so on. That may not be quite so easy this time, compared with most home games, but both we and Worthing have a great set of supporters who I know will co-operate."

And the outcome? A nice friendly 2-2 draw? Williams would not quite go that far. “We are top of certain stat tables, they are top of other stat tables. That in itself is going to give us a really entertaining afternoon of football!”

Tony Carmody, Borough’s long-serving safety officer, told us that there will be a police presence at the ground, in addition to club stewards and the professional security company whose blue and black uniforms are already familiar to Priory Lane regulars. “We have clear contingency plans which cover all possibilities.”

Like Priory Lane, Worthing’s Woodside Road stadium has seldom witnessed crowd behaviour issues, although some Worthing home fixtures are segregated to ease movement around the standing areas. What is certain is that the West Sussex visitors will be in very full voice, and Chris Agutter’s men will feel quite at home!

Non-League football has always embraced values of friendship, sportsmanship and shared enjoyment of the game. In that, it is closer to the buoyant but genial experience of a top Rugby Union match, or to a vibrant England-West Indies Test match, than to the tribalism of many Premier League encounters.

And Carmody summed up the club’s determination to combine spectator safety with a measured view: “The moment that we segregate, for a fixture like this, we are judging the visiting fans before they have even arrived! We won’t be naïve but we will treat them as sensible people unless somebody gives us cause to think otherwise.”

More in common than that which divides us? Definitely. Always rivals, never enemies? Absolutely! Come on you Rebels! Come on you Sports! Put on a show to make Sussex proud…

We’ll have more previews – including the views of Adam Murray and Chris Agutter – on this website before Friday, plus Borough owner Simon Leslie’s exclusive Eastbourne Herald column. Keep them peeled!