Eastbourne Borough (1) 2 Clarke 3 Alexander 71
Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 Akehurst 9
Attendance: 948
Admission: Pass
Mileage: 92/4,882
Tonbridge Angels returned pointless from a difficult afternoon in Sussex.
The pivotal minute in the game arrived on 70 minutes when Nazir Bakrin was shown a second yellow and subsequent red card and, within a minute, Eastbourne Borough were in front with a somewhat controversial goal after appeals for a foul on goalkeeper Matt Rowley were turned away.
Jay Saunders reflected after the game: “It wasn’t the greatest of games. I’m disappointed with the two set pieces we’ve conceded from. We were not great today.”
A noisy, healthy contingent of Angels fans had made their way to Priory Lane on a cold afternoon which saw Jay Saunders, who was serving a one match touchline suspension, introduce Jack Wood straight into the starting XI in place of an injured Sean Shields.
The Angels couldn’t have got off to a worse start falling behind with less than three minutes on the clock. Jack Clarke’s free kick was met at the far post with a Freddie Carter header that was steered in the bottom corner.
Due credit to visitors who, with the pace of Trevan Robinson and Wood giving the giant-sized Borough back line problems, were back level on nine minutes with Wood involved as the ball found its way via Mo Dabre to the left side of the box from where Bailey Akehurst’s cleanly struck shot found the net.
Tonbridge were dealt a blow when, after just 24 minutes, Dabre had to give way after hobbling out of a previous challenge, to be replaced by Mikey Berry.
Certainly, the rest of the first half saw neither side gain any semblance of control and nothing significant in the way of chances.
The home side were in the ascendancy in the early stages of the second period but without causing any alarm at the back until Bakrin saw red for a challenge to the left of the centre circle.
Berry needed to be sacrificed for defender Liam Vincent but, on 71 minutes, Eastbourne took the lead when a right-sided corner was headed on and as Rowley attempted to claim the ball it was bundled from his grasp to be forced home by George Alexander. Protests to referee Daniel Baines fell on deaf ears, given the protection normally given to goalkeepers, there was a case to be made.
Jay’s opinion differs: “Matt’s got to do better with it, he’s got to be stronger and I’ve made him aware of that.”
A goal and a man down, Tonbridge withstood some pressure from the home side before mounting an added time effort to rescue something from the game and when Robinson was bundled to the ground in the final minute for a moment it seemed that opportunity was to be had before the referee’s outstretched arms signalled nothing doing and moments later the final whistle was blown with Robinson shown a yellow for his continued protestations.
Jay: “There were some weird decisions. The boys feel strongly there was a penalty at the end. I was a long way from it, you can normally go on player reactions and they feel it was a definite penalty but I don’t think the referee is going to be brave enough to give that, last kick of the game here, maybe at our place we get it.”
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