MATCH PREVIEW: Eastbourne Borough vs Chippenham Town | National League South | Saturday 8th March 2025
Harry Minton previews our trip to Eastbourne.
A tough test awaits the Bluebirds this Saturday as they travel down south to East Sussex to take on Eastbourne Borough away in the National League South.
Last Time Out
The Bluebirds welcomed Torquay United under the lights and in front of the DAZN cameras at the Thornbury Surfacing Stadium. Although they hit the bar just minutes into the game through a Tom Owen-Evans header, it was actually the visitors who opened the scoring after eight minutes played. A goal that came out of nothing it’s fair to say, it was a low-driven cross that came in from the left-hand side. One of the Torquay attackers in the box completely miss kicks it initially, though fortunately for the Gulls it did find the head of a teammate in Matthew Carson as he guided his effort towards the far post, clipping the upright on its way in and Torquay had the lead early on.
That goal was not going to discourage the Bluebirds however, as they had a decent amount of opportunities throughout the rest of that first half. Tom Mehew in particular had a good couple chances, one from distance that tested the Gulls keeper James Hamon into making a save. Chippenham were rewarded on the stroke of half time for all their hard work and endeavour creating chances, another long range strike this time from the one of the academy graduates Caine Bradbury who just placed it into the far left corner, hard and low, nothing Hamon could have done about the goal as our boys in blue had found a deserved equaliser.
The second half was certainly a more cagey affair, though the away side did come very close to regaining the lead just moments after the interval when Jordan Thomas’ strike just clipped the top of the crossbar. Torquay did controversially take the lead again however in the fifty seventh minute when the ball fell to Offrande Zarizala in the box and he made no mistake in bundling the ball over the line despite Jac Poffley nearly getting to the ball and making what would have been a fantastic last ditch clearance. Bluebirds did feel aggrieved as just before the ball was played to Zarizala, there looked to have been a clear push in the back on Tom Owen-Evans.
Paul Wotton’s side then secured the three points with literally the last kick of the game after a miss hit pass out from the back from Henry saw Matt Jay have a simple finish into an unguarded net in the last minute of stoppage time. Our boys in blue would have definitely felt hard done by losing to Torquay on Tuesday night, although in the second half the Gulls did do well to nullify the Bluebirds attacks.
Our Opponents – Eastbourne Borough
Eastbourne Borough are actually one of the more newer clubs in the modern game today, founded in 1964 as Langney FC. Named after the Langney district of Eastbourne in which the club continues to play its home games. The idea came about when a group of friends had played for the Langney and Friday Street youth team were too old to carry on playing and thought they should form their own team if they still want to play football.
After the team was formed, Langney FC entered the Eastbourne and District Football League, competing in division two. At the start of the 1968/1969 season, the club went through a name change to Langney Sports FC. This is where they got their nickname, “The Sports” from. Around this time, Langney Sports were playing on local recreation grounds before moving to a ground called Princes Park near the seafront, right next to Eastbourne United’s ground at the Oval. And in the 1973/1974 season, the Sports clinched promotion to the Premier Division of the Eastbourne and Hastings League.
Langney Sports played in the division until 1983 when they were elected as a founding member of Division 3 of the Sussex County League. With a change of leagues also came a change of venues for the club as they moved from Princes Park to where they currently play their home games at The SO Legal Stadium at Priory Lane.
A few years later in 1987, the Sports achieved a famous treble where they won the third division of the Sussex County League, the Division 3 League Cup and the Eastbourne Challenge Cup all in the same year. This period in the late 80s/early 90s was sort of a golden era for Langney Sports the following season they secured a successive promotion to division one of the Sussex County League. In 1992 as well, the Sports would reach the final of the Sussex Senior Challenge Cup, narrowly coming up short in a one nil defeat to the reserve team of Sussex’s only professional club at the time in Brighton and above Albion.
In 1999, Scottish manager Garry Wilson would take reins as the manager of Langney Sports and this is where the club continued to go from strength to strength. Firstly, they won the first division of the Sussex County league in Wilson’s first full season, achieving promotion to the Southern Football League for the first time in the club’s history. In the 2001/2002 season, now under the name of Eastbourne Borough, the team won their first ever Sussex County Challenge Cup title. In front of a record crowd, they defeated Lewes FC after extra time! In the following season too things got even better as Eastbourne were promoted to the Premier Division of the Southern League. Then in 2004 the Sports did qualify for the Conference South, where they do play their league games today, meanwhile in 2005 they made the playoff final of the sixth tier. Though sadly it would end in heartbreak as they would go down to Altrincham by two goals to one at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium. The 2007/2008 season is no doubt the most memorable of them all for Eastbourne, after finishing in 2nd place in the Conference South, they absolutely steam rolled their way through the playoffs. Dispatching of Braintree Town by five goals to nil over two legs and then comfortably winning against Hampton and Richmond Borough by two goals to nil in ten final at Stevenage’s Broadhall Way to earn promotion to the Conference Premier (5th tier) for the first time in the club’s history. The work that the team and Garry Wilson had done to witness the rise from the Southern League to Conference in less than ten years must have been remarkable!
In 2009, another trophy was to follow in the Sussex Senior Cup where they managed to get their revenge on Brighton’s reserve beating them by the exact same scoreline that Brighton did all those years ago, winning by a single goal to nil.
The fairytale of being in the Conference Premier sadly came to an end for Eastbourne in 2011, despite beating Altrincham on the final day, they were relegated with thirty nine points. A total of eight points off safety in the end.
Since the club’s time back in the National League South as it is now called these days, fans haven’t seen much intent of trying to get back to the National League bar this season where the Sports are currently sitting in fourth place and only three points off the top spot. And also in the 2021/2022 season they made the playoffs alongside the Bluebirds. Though Eastbourne failed at the first hurdle unlike Gary Horgan’s boys as they were eliminated in the quarter finals losing two nil away to Oxford City.
Head to Head
The head-to-head stats for the Bluebirds away at Priory Lane is looking rather bleak. Out of the last six meetings in Sussex, there has been a total of one draw and five defeats for our boys in blue. Towards the tail end of last season when we went there, we did not show up at all as the game was done just before the hour mark. The boys from Wiltshire conceded some very soft goals to the likes of Sam Beard, Moussa Diarra and Yahaya Bamba as they were humbled to a three nil defeat. However, this season back at our place we did get our revenge on the Sports. We played them when they were top of the league and it was a very convincing performance in another three nil win, with the likes of Mehew, Luke Haines and Harry Parsons all on target back in November to secure just a third home league win at the time for the Bluebirds.
Ones to Watch
Definitely, the lads are going to have to work on trying to keep George Alexander quiet this weekend. The main man up top for Borough so far this season has scored twenty-two goals in all competitions, a total of nineteen in the league which is second to only Kwesi Appiah with twenty-one goals for Boreham Wood.
Round-up
A really tough game awaits Chippenham this weekend against a team who are still yet to be beaten at home in the league. But we have seen on multiple occasions this season that we can turn up when the boys in black are true underdogs.
If you’re unable to join us at Eastbourne on Saturday, you can tune in to Dan Blake’s LIVE Radio Match Commentary on Mixlr.
You will be able to listen in from 14:50 UK Time for the latest updates.
COME ON YOU BLUEBIRDS!!!
