Murray says Eastbourne Borough are refreshed for one last big title push

The league programme finishes with a home game against Weston-super-Mare – themselves just outside the crucial top seven places, and with only West Country pride to play for. The Sports will step out tomorrow (Saturday) at a packed Priory Lane with the play-offs assured, the title still within reach, and Adam Murray’s team focused on the challenge.

“We wanted to put ourselves in the position where we go into the last game still with the opportunity to win the league – and we’ve done exactly that.

Eat, sleep, repeat? Typically, Murray’s response at the end of Monday’s victory came with a slightly alternative message: “We have a few days now where we’re all going to shut down, it’s important that we refresh ourselves, and not think about football. And then one last big push!”

It is best not to argue with Adam on timing. Exactly twelve months ago, the Sports secured National South status with 48 hours of the season left. They had inched their way to safety, just as this season, the club have stayed with the leading pack and are poised for one last push.

There will be no hiding place this weekend, when no fewer than six clubs take the field for one final tilt at the title. Working upwards: Boreham Wood and Dorking Wanderers would need an unlikely set of results to snatch the top place, while Worthing sit fourth on 85 points after two successive 1-1 draws – at the ReachTV Stadium and at home to Dorking.

Also on 85, the Sports have a better goal difference than the Rebels. Truro City and Torquay United lead the chase, level on 86 points but with the Cornish club ahead by just a sliver of goal difference. Truro host St Albans City, who desperately need a win to escape the bottom four, while Torquay have a tough trip to combative Hemel Hempstead. Could the Sports slip through past both of them?

So Borough will welcome Weston super Mare on Saturday, with the final placings not fully in their control, but with a genuine chance of the National South title – and with every prospect of a favourable play-off schedule. The second- and third-placed clubs each have a bye in the first set of games, and then a guaranteed home fixture, which would take place on either Saturday 3rd or Sunday 4th May.

Finish any lower, and the prospect of a long haul to the West Country would loom. But don’t even think about that. Look at Murray’s team: steadily progressing week by week, match by match. Hopeful-and-eager becoming confident-and-formidable. Young professionals playing like seasoned professionals. Long hours of training and coaching now turning into actual unstoppable moves, sweet set-pieces and exuberant goals. And real victories: the Sports have lost just once in their last twelve games.

Tomorrow’s Weston game is not all-ticket, but advance tickets are on sale and supporters are advised to arrive in good time. While Worthing’s Good Friday support was far into four figures – including an unwelcome element of adolescent nuisance-makers – the Somerset Seagulls will muster just a hardy clutch of long-distance fans.

And Priory Lane will once again resume its true character - a proper non-league occasion, with friendly rivalry and cheerful hospitality cheek by jowl. “I was there when Borough won the league!” Dare you miss it?