Weekend Preview: Eastbourne away

Tomorrow afternoon Wood make their way to East Sussex to take on a team that should be known as 'The Pensioners', Eastbourne Borough FC.

I once went to Eastbourne as a child, and remember being quite bored. The highlight was catching an episode of 'Why Don't You?' on the telly in our hotel room (showing my age). It was full of old people. It still is. This is probably the most sweeping of generalisations about the place (although facts do suggest that is has a larger proportion of +60 year old people than the majority of the UK), but if we played a game of word association and I said Eastbourne you would most likely say 'old people', and not 'Eastbourne Borough FC'

I digress. Eastbourne Borough FC, having suffered relegation from the Conference last term, have got off to a mixed start, with only 10 points from their first 8 games, and they find themselves in 15th place. There have been some notable performances from the sea side club, namely a 5-0 victory over the Bromley side that stuffed Wood so comprehensively at the start of the season, but these have been matched with some disappointing results, highlighted by a 3-1 home defeat to Chelmsford City.

Having a look through their team, the name that stands out is that of Gary Hart, who plied his trade for many years at Championship pace setters Brighton and Hove Albion, and actually scored against Eastbourne in the first game at Brighton's new Falmer Stadium, where the Gulls Reserves beat Eastbourne reserves to win the coveted Sussex Senior Cup. Hart is seen as somewhat of a legend at Brighton, and was released and then brought back to the club on more than one occasion. A versatile player, he can play anywhere from right back to Striker (which is his listed position on the Eastbourne Website), and his experience should pose a threat to a Wood side lacking in confidence after the current string of results.

Prediction

With both teams looking for some consistency after a rocky start, this is a really hard one to call. Wood have found it hard to score this season, (joint lowest in the league), but Eastbourne seem to have quite the leaky defence which could be exploited with some better finishing (Wood could have been 5 points better off at least with a bit more killer instinct in front of goal, although that would have only have put us level with Eastbourne in 15th!). If Wood can keep there heads for the first 20 minutes and not concede, then surely there has to have been enough positives from the Truro game that can encourage them forward.

As it is I'm going to go for a plucky 1-1 draw. Eastbourne are 4/5 favourites (with good reason), with Wood being 11/4 outsiders. Draw is 13/5 (all odds are taken from Blue Square). I'm mainly going for a point here because I can't sit here with a straight face and expect us to beat Welling on Monday - more of that before the game.

Hope you have a great weekend, whomever you support *cough*, and here's hoping for a better result from Wood.

I can be found on twitter @wearethewood, and as always thanks for your support and feedback.

Until next time....

WE ARE THE WOOD!