


Eastbourne Borough Preview
On Tuesday evening we welcome Eastbourne Borough to the Halcyon Wealth Longmead Stadum with this the first of the two games against the east Sussex club inside the next three weeks. Tuesday’s fixture has been rearranged through the 2024/25 calendar several times due to various cup commitments.
Eastbourne come to Longmead in a rich vein of form with Saturday’s goalless home draw with Truro City stretching their unbeaten run to seven games whilst also having completed a total of eight hours, 26 minutes without conceding a goal. They currently sit sixth in the table, five points behind leaders Torquay United.
Their form on the road has also been very good with six of their 12 National League South wins coming away from home, five of them were 1-0, at Hornchurch, Weymouth, Truro, Welling United and Weston-super-Mare. The other was far more convincing, a 5-2 win at Hemel Hempstead Town.
Their relative success this season comes on the back of having survived the threat of relegation for much of last season, eventually finishing 19th. They are now in their 14th consecutive season in the division having been relegated from Conference National in 2011. In that time they've once made the play-offs, losing to Oxford City in the 2022 eliminator, but otherwise have always finished in league positions between 10th and 19th.
Their manager is Adam Murray, appointed just over a year ago after the sacking of Mark Beard. Murray won National League North with Fylde and has managed at Mansfield Town and Boston United and played more than 500 games in the EFL as a midfielder at Mansfield, Oxford United, Derby County and Carlisle United. His assistant is Matt Green, while part of his coaching staff is our former goalkeeping coach Andy Smith.
Manager Adam Murray told the club media after Saturday’s game: "I feel like we took a point back home with us. Two teams fighting for promotion and there was always going to be nothing in the game. We had some unbelievable chances to win the game. We spent most of the second half in their half. I feel we've done enough to win the game but we've taken four points out of six against a team challenging for promotion so we'll take that."
On today's game, Murray said: "It's going to be a tricky place to go, we've got a good squad, we'll use our squad and possibly rotate a few guys. It's a big month for us, in just over a year we've gone from relegation favourites to pushing for the title."
In Eastbourne’s squad is likely to be Michael Klass who joined from Maidstone United in the summer. His previous clubs include Worthing, Aldershot and Lewes. Another former Maidstone player is Dominic Odusanya, who usually plays wide. He was in the promotion winning Braintree Town side last season and has also played against us for Welling United.
Eastbourne have a very strong set of forwards from which to choose. Their top scorer is George Alexander, the former Bromley, Dartford and Slough man, who has scored 11 goals in league and cup having joined from Chelmsford in the summer. Alfie Pavey, who has five goals, will be a name well known to Angels fans having played for nearly all of our local rivals, Dartford, Welling, Dover and Maidstone and is a regular scorer at this level.
After Saturday’s game when the Angels took a point at Longmead against Chippenham Town, Jay Saunders confirmed that Liam Vincent will be on the sidelines for the next six weeks and looked forward to Tuesday night: “This will be a really tough game, they are a good side with good players but it is a Tuesday night at Longmead, we look forward to them. The atmosphere is always good and hopefully we can get back on a winning run.”
The clubs have met seven times at Longmead at step two, Tonbridge winning five and drawing two. Although Eastbourne did beat us in the 2018/19 FA Cup at Longmead, both of us were in National League South at the time.
In this fixture last season we won 2-0 with goals from Ethan Sutcliffe and a shot from Mo Dabre which hit the bar, then keeper Ben Dudzinski before nestling in the net. Eastbourne's Freddie Carter was sent off for two yellows. We also won the reverse fixture at Priory Lane by 3-0 with goals from Jamie Fielding, Jordan Greenidge and an own goal from Danny Quick.
Admission prices for Tuesday’s game are: Adults £17; Concessions £14; Youths £7 and Under-12’s free with accompanying adult with tickets available HERE.
Gates open at 6pm with the Sports Bar and Marquee Bar open from the outset. The Tea Hut serving burgers, hot dogs, butties, hot and cold drinks and Fries Like An Angel, serving all your favourite loaded chips are also open from 6 o’clock. The Pie Shack opens from 6.30pm. After the game, the Sports Bar stays open until 11pm.
Our award-winning programme is available from the Programme Hut, priced at £3 and will feature reflections from Jay Saunders, club captain Scott Wagstaff, club chaplain Neil Durling and our chair Sophie Purves with reports from our men’s and women’s first team games plus youth teams.
Enjoy the game!