Eastbourne Borough 1 Tonbridge 2

Match 23/12/976 - Tuesday, 2 October 2012 - Conference South

Eastbourne Borough (0) 1 Remy 75
Tonbridge (1) 2 Piper 38, 80
Att. 415

Entrance: £8 Senior
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 70/1,362

Match Report

Lightning strikes twice.

Last season, on the back of a worrying run of form, Tonbridge went to Eastbourne, then a form team, and with rain lashing the Langney Sports Ground, they came away with a well deserved, but surprising 2-1 victory. Wind forward eleven months, the rain was still pelting down, Tonbridge’s form was still indifferent and once again they delighted their travelling support with a 2-1 win.

On this occasion the inclement weather took its toll on the attendance. A crowd of 924 attended the 2011 fixture whilst this time less than half (415) braved the elements.

Although Eastbourne had the lion’s share of early possession, they were pretty punchless in the final third leaving Lee Worgan untested and having lost four of their previous five League fixtures the home faithful were not in any mood to cut their side too much slack. The principle point of discussion in the opening half-hour was the melee that followed a tackle by Tonbridge's Ben Judge. The challenge was misjudged, but hardly dangerous, and the scuffle that followed with almost all of the 22 players getting involved was completely unnecessary. The referee, who went on to be card happy, booked Judge (when it didn’t appear he was going to take action from the initial incident) and Eastbourne’s Ben Adelsbury for his part in the fracas.

Tonbridge went ahead after 38 minutes when Borough’s keeper Nick Jordan allowed a Henry Muggeridge cross to slip from his grasp at the feet of Chris Piper who eased the ball into the unguarded net.

As the rain fell even harder, the second half became a bit of a dog fight with the referee brandishing his yellow card with a little too much relish, eight players receiving a caution by the end of the night. Eastbourne finally got on terms with 15 minutes remaining, a long cross from the left found its way to the far post where substitute Ellis Remy scored with a shot in-off a post.

Tonbridge’s reply came five minutes later. Ross Treleaven, an ex-Eastbourne player, hurled a long throw into the Borough penalty area from where Olly Schulz’s goalward header was parried by Jordan into the path of the night's poacher, Piper, who scored to the delight of the visiting support positioned behind the goal.

A well-worked team goal following a cross from George Purcell and a volley from Frannie Collin was disputably ruled out for offside as Tonbridge caught the home side on the break in the closing minutes.

So from what looked a patchy run of form, Tonbridge can now to point to eight games without defeat, albeit with only two wins in the sequence, and their rise up the table to 14th makes much easier viewing.