Murray and Barry jubilant after Eastbourne Borough survive – but say: It has to be just the start

Last Tuesday night, leading at faraway Weston-super-Mare, the Sports had seen their National South safety snatched away from them with a Weston equaliser in the 95th minute. But then by 10.00pm on Thursday night they were safe – without kicking a ball, but possibly with serious repetitive strain injury from refreshing their Twitter feeds about five times a minute!

Plucky Taunton Town, the only club who could mathematically have overtaken Borough, went down 1-0 at home, ironically to Weston, and slipped down the relegation chute.

Braintree v Eastbourne Borough in pictures.

And so, with the nerves evaporated and with all those scribbled back-of-envelope calculations screwed up and cast into the wastepaper basket, a buoyant Borough squad – and their barmy army of a couple of hundred supporters – headed to North Essex.

Hosts Braintree Town were already in the play-offs but jostling for a favourable home tie (which actually brought a 1-0 victory over Bath City on Wednesday night). The Iron took an early lead, cancelled out by Borough’s new lethal weapon Yahya Bamba, who has now scored seven goals in his ten appearances.

Then Alfie Bendle made it 2-1 to the Sports, a lead which they held until the 89th minute after Bamba had been dismissed for a needless second yellow card. But Braintree’s late equaliser was instantly trumped by an Eastbourne winner, Imran Uche slamming in a right-wing corner. There was still time for Brad Barry to be sent off after a difference of opinion with referee Tommy Breen – but the men in red and white held on to claim victory and a delirious reception from the Barmy Army.

Speaking five minutes after the final whistle, amid the jubilant chaos, club captain Brad Barry summed it up: “I just want to say a massive thank you to the fans who have been so totally behind us all season. What we’ve seen today is a team effort in every respect. I’ve been around the game, I’ve been promoted and relegated before, and seen the highs and lows of football. We have a fairly young team and I hope I’ve helped them learn how to manage every emotion.”

Where can Borough go from here? “There’s no limit. Football changes every week – you’ve just seen that in the last few weeks! With all the support we have behind us, there’s no reason why we can’t head for the very top.”

For Barry’s manager Adam Murray, it was mission accomplished. “We knew we were safe, but we didn’t want just to go through the motions –

not just turn up, but turn up and win! I thought we managed the game well overall, but in the first half we were not up to our expected standards. The players reacted excellently to some strong words at half-time, and the second-half mentality was superb.

“We’ve just beaten a play-off team, away from home. Braintree have lost once in twenty games since New Year’s Day, and those are the strides we’ve made. We’ve plenty of work to do still, and this is just the beginning, but today we were outstanding, both with and without the ball.

“The guys have deserved that result – and to come here and secure it in the manner that we did, in front of our own tumultuous fans – it doesn’t get much better!”

And now a bit of a break? “As a manager and coach, you don’t really shut off! We’ll already be starting to think about next season, the next challenge, the next moves. We will switch off for a couple of days, and get some steam back in the tank, and we’ll be ready to go again!”