EASTBOURNE Borough put themselves up to seventh place after a tough 1-0 win against Isthmian Premier Division leaders Welling United, knocking them down to second in the process.
It was a hard-fought game with little in the way of genuine chances, the first shot on target for either team coming in the 17th minute by way of a tame Josh Rees header.
Rees’ second effort on target would prove a lot more successful. Darren McQueen ran onto a long ball in behind the Welling defence and cut the ball back to Rees, who smashed the ball past Phillip Ogayi in the Welling goal to put Borough 1-0 up. The Borough captain made it three goals in his last two games after his brace against Carshalton Athletic on Monday night.
A few minutes later, centre back Freddie Carter, who celebrated his 100th appearance for the Sports this afternoon, marauded down the middle of the pitch and played an inadvertent one-two with Darren McQueen. Carter then gave the ball to Arthur Grout, whose low shot from distance was saved by Ogayi.
The Sports continued to search for a second as Shay Harrison saw his deflected shot tipped round the post by Ogayi. Terrell Egbri then came extremely close, but Sam Oguntayo’s cross was just behind him and then when he eventually got a shot off, it sailed over the bar.
That was the last noteworthy action of the first half as the game became a real grind, 16 fouls in the first half being the main contributor to the game’s lack of rhythm.
Borough’s starting 11 looked quite different in the second. Freddie Carter was replaced by Harry Phipps at half-time, and then just after the restart, Harrison landed awkwardly after contesting a header and couldn’t continue, giving way for Paul McCallum to make his debut after signing for the club a few days prior.
Phipps wasted no time trying to make an impact on the game, sending a long diagonal ball down the left side which the defender misjudged for McQueen to pounce on, laying the ball off to Grout for another long-range shot but this one was always rising over the bar.
The game then returned to a real battle, seeing both Craig Eastmond and Welling’s Kaan Bennett pick up bookings in the 54th minute.
Lots of half chances followed for the next 10 minutes, mainly coming from Terrell Egbri’s quick feet down the right wing. The winger was constantly running at Chris Arthur at left back, doing everything he could to get crosses in, but they were either blocked or headed away.
Tempers threatened to boil over after a late challenge from Rees saw him pick up a yellow card, then a booking for debutant McCallum followed immediately after when the referee booked him for dissent.
A golden opportunity then fell Egbri’s way when Rees sent a fantastic ball over a poorly timed offside trap from the Welling United defence to put the number 17 through one-on-one with the keeper. McCallum was busting a gut to get in the box and give him another option, but the winger chose to go it alone and unfortunately for him his shot hit the side netting.
Welling were desperate to keep their place at the league’s summit, sending their keeper up for two corners deep into injury time, but Borough managed to clear their lines despite the pressure mounting and after six minutes of injury time, the ref finally blew his whistle to send relief amongst the over 1200 in attendance at Priory Lane.
That win saw Eastbourne Borough make it nine wins in a row in all competitions. They’ll be looking to put their win streak into double digits when they travel to Salisbury next Saturday for the final round of FA Cup qualifying.
