It was an unchanged Angels starting line up that took to the field for the first of four successive home league fixtures.

Eastbourne Borough arrived at Longmead on the back of four straight league wins but were immediately on the back foot when they conceded after just two minutes.  A great run by Jack Wood saw the Eastbourne Borough defence out paced with the subsequent cross converted by Jordan Greenidge for his 5th goal in five games.

The home side continued their supremacy with chances falling for Greenidge in the 13th and 30th minutes.  It was not however only the tall striker alone that was causing difficulties in the Eastbourne ranks.  Jack Wood, Lewis Gard, Devonte Aransibia and Tariq Hinds in particular were simply not letting the team in red have any respite and this should have led to further goals for the Angels.

The Sports defence did seem to steady itself after about 30 minutes, lessened the errors somewhat and began to look like a team that could play together.

Angels keeper, Henly was forced into a decent save on 33 minutes but there were few moments of any genuine alarm for the hosts defence and on the stroke of half term that Wood – Greenidge connection nearly worked again to double the Angels advantage the ball just travelled outside the angle of the goal.  

Eastbourne Manager, Danny Bloor would have been grateful to have got his men into the sanctuary of the dressing room for a half time chat, but within three minutes of the restart any revised plans would have been cast asunder as Angels did get that crucial second goal.  A fantastic run from Tariq Hinds on the right saw him deliver a cross that Devonte Aransibia connected with perfectly to guide the ball past Taylor Seymour in the Sports goal.    

A few minutes later Angels Ben Swift was forced to make a goal line clearance and on 57 minutes Dylan Adeji-Hersey spotted Henly slightly off his line but the shot was wildly off target.

The match was effectively over as a contest when on 62 minutes Jack Wood ran on to a big clearance from Jonny Henly and never hesitating fired past Seymour for the third Angels goal.  

Eastbourne enjoyed some possession but just couldn’t make any of it count with the Angels defence very well organised and the hosts might well have added to their tally with Seymour making a huge save off a Hinds shot and in stoppage time Jack Wood nearly picked up his second goal of the night but the ball was somehow smuggled away by a tiring Eastbourne defence.   

Angels Manager, Jay Saunders said afterwards: “We can still be better, but overall I have to very pleased with tonight’s performance"     

Photo top right by Wesley Filtness. Tonbridge Angels photographs can be found at www.wezpix.com