Worst of weather can’t blow Eastbourne Borough’s league campaign off course

Eastbourne Borough claimed three valuable Isthmian Premier points on Tuesday night with a 1-0 victory over lowly Stanway Rovers – but for manager Steve King, it was all about the elements as well as the opposition.

The Sports extended their incredible current run to 14 victories in 15 starts – just the 3-0 FA Cup defeat at Salisbury blotching the record – as they swept aside second-bottom Stanway Rovers at the Connect Management Stadium.

Skipper Josh Rees notched the crucial goal just before half-time, and Borough spurned a whole clutch of chances to make the game safe against gritty opposition, in front of a huddled crowd of 619 – only a little over one-third of Saturday's attendance against Ramsgate.

The victory nudges the Sports up to third in the table, ahead of a potentially difficult trip to Dartford on Saturday.

Borough are, frankly, the team to beat right now, as this compelling campaign moves towards the winter. But for the players, supporters and the gaffer himself, Tuesday night was no feast of football, just a test of endurance.

"Shocking! Not my team, nor even the opposition, but the weather! If you don't know Eastbourne, you don't know our weather. It was horrendous - the wind especially - it's the worst I've ever seen it - and I live in this town!" said King.

"It was appalling and it ruined the game - no flow or pattern. It was just a match that you wanted to be finished, as soon as the referee blew his first whistle.

"But ultimately you just go about your business. Sometimes if you can 'win horribly' like that, it is actually a good sign. We can't always play great football and win. Long throws, headers off the line, you just do what you have to.

"But we did miss five unbelievable chances, and I mean five, to make the game safe. Their keeper has made three or four brilliant saves - but we should be putting those chances to bed.

"Poor as the game was, poor as the conditions were, we've had chances and we should have taken and made the game safe. So I was disappointed from that point of view, but… cross it off, game done. You can only get three points for a win, whatever the quality or the conditions or the opposition."

Is King: the new Michael Fish? Readers of a certain age will just still remember the infamous forecast in 1987 from the BBC weatherman - the night before a hurricane swept across southern England. Michael actually lived in Eastbourne: perhaps he should have known better.

There was no football stadium at Priory Lane back then, but the flat Langney landscape has always been open to all the elements. Never mind, you hardy Borough fans: not even the worst that the Channel throws at us can blow King's Sports off course.