Simon Leslie: Exciting times for Borough – but it's early days

But if anyone thinks this season is going to be easy, think again. There are no easy games in this league. Every team wants to beat you, every point has to be earned and reputations count for absolutely nothing once the referee blows the whistle.

What has pleased me most so far is the squad we have assembled. I keep using that word deliberately – squad.

Steve King and Alan Williams have done some fabulous business over the summer. We are operating on a significantly reduced playing budget compared with our time in National League South, but I genuinely believe we’ve put together a group with quality, character and, importantly, depth.

Look at our bench and there are players capable of changing games. Over a long season with injuries, suspensions and the inevitable ups and downs, that is going to matter enormously.

We’ve started well, but nobody at the club is getting carried away. Two games don’t make a season. There will be difficult Saturdays, horrible Tuesday nights and moments when things don’t go our way. That’s football. Our ambition, however, hasn’t changed. We want to get Eastbourne Borough back into National League South.

And while we’re building something on the pitch, we’re working just as hard off it.

The padel club is now up and running and incredibly busy. We’re already thinking about expansion because I suspect booking a court this winter is going to become increasingly difficult.

In September we will open our new Simulator Centre, with more than 1,800 golf courses, interactive football, bowling and many other sports. It’ll be somewhere for children’s parties, business evenings, friends having a drink or simply somewhere to come and have some fun. It’s all part of a much bigger plan.

I’ve always believed a football club should be about far more than what happens for 90 minutes every other Saturday.

Our vision is to turn the whole site into Eastbourne Sporting Village and, ultimately, create Borough Quarter – somewhere with sport, entertainment, restaurants, bars and great places to spend an evening throughout the year.

I want this to become somewhere Eastbourne wants to hang out – whether we’re playing football that day or not. There is a huge amount still to do, and we’re certainly not pretending everything happens overnight. Building anything worthwhile takes time.

The same applies to this football team. We’ve made a good start. We’re unbeaten. There’s a good feeling around the around the club. But there are no medals handed out in August.

So we’ll keep our feet firmly on the ground, keep working, keep improving and see where this journey takes us. And hopefully, come the end of it, we’ll be celebrating Borough being back where we want to be.

I hope to see you tomorrow at 3pm when we will be bringing the energy against Barry Hearn’s Brentwood Town.

Thanks again for all those who are supporting us. Let’s keep filling up the stadium.