Matt Gray’s Eastbourne Borough reign ends – but who might take his place?
It had always looked possible – and it has happened sooner rather than later: Eastbourne Borough FC have parted company with manager Matt Gray.
Remember Jenga? The game where you build a tower of little wooden blocks, ever riskier until the tower tumbles down. You probably still have a box in a cupboard, to be fetched out every Boxing Day. Simon Leslie and his CEO Alan Williams might just feel they have patented the limited-edition football version.
A dismal start to the season has left the club winless after ten matches in National South – with just two victories notched up in FA Cup games against lower-ranked opposition.
Disquiet among supporters – both recent recruits and old stagers – has risen from muttering level to open criticism, including loud booing at the final whistle of the club’s last home game.
Gray - a decent and honest human being - arrived with an impressive CV, including previous promotions in the National League, but his preferred playing style – direct long-ball rather than the pass-and-move of predecessor Adam Murray – has disappointed the fans and brought scant reward, in terms of goals or even goalmouth action.
Borough and owner Leslie, genial and generous but eager for success, are now looking for a fourth manager in just over two seasons. Mark Beard left just after Christmas 2023, before Adam Murray turned fortunes around and then led a thrilling 2024-25 campaign which took the Sports achingly close to promotion. But Derby-based Murray decided to return north.
Gray and his assistant Jason Goodliffe have worked hard but quite fruitlessly – with a fairly young squad who are arguably not equipped for the demanding arena of National South.
Player recruitment at Priory Lane, overseen by CEO Williams, has sometimes been a mystery to outsiders, but in simple week-to-week terms, the current squad lacks goals.
Borough women’s manager Chris Day will take interim charge as the Sports welcome National League Boreham Wood on Saturday, for a challenging FA Cup tie. Victory would see the club into the First Round Proper for the first time in five seasons – and give an enormous boost to morale.
Drewe Broughton has joined Day's interim management team, the club announced on Thursday.
Leslie combines generosity, and a kind of gleeful ebullience, with a canny business brain. But while an FA Cup success would find him full of broad smiles, Leslie has a longer-term vision and project. He now needs stability and a shrewd experienced manager.
Dom di Paola has guided Horsham impressively upwards through the Pyramid – but he and Hornets are an excellent partnership, and this might not be his moment to move. Young and rather untried candidates from left field, such as Walton and Hersham’s Billy Rowley, would raise eyebrows.
Ex-Yeovil manager Mark Cooper’s name has been mentioned too.
But this is not the moment for experiments. It calls for an experienced, respected and grounded manager – someone who knows the level, is well connected and is available.