Hemel Hempstead Town 1-2 Eastbourne Borough Vanarama National League South Match report by Allan Mitchell It seems to be a recurring theme for Tudors fans as they watched their depleted squad dominate the first period only to lose the game after a below par second half performance. They started strongly and looked confident as they took the game to the visitors from the off but only went in one goal to the good at the interval. The goal came on the half hour mark when a great run down the left by Brooklyn Ilunga saw him feed the ball across to Dara Dada on the edge of the box, he controlled it well before driving it past the Borough keeper into the bottom corner, where it hit the base of the netting and cannoned out, many supporters not realising that it had actually gone in. Eastbourne came back into the game as the interval approached and they forced a series of corners, one of which saw Josh Castiglione clear the ball off the line. This should had served as a bit of a warning to the home side but they came out on the back foot and as had happened far too often this season, conceded just a couple of minutes into the re-start when a cross from the left was met by the unmarked Jacob Hutchinson at the back post, he had an easy header and made no mistake. You felt that the next goal would be the winner and it looked like it would be The Sports who would get it. When the goal came it was in bizarre circumstances as a harmless looking through ball looked to have caught an Eastbourne player offside, he ignored the ball however and with the Hemel backline caught waiting for a whistle or a flag, two Borough players raced through and completed a simple tap in with Craig King left helpless. The Tudors huffed and puffed after this but never really looked like scoring and Eastbourne held on to take the points comfortably.
Hemel: King, O’Connor, Eletheriou, Poku, Lelan, Ajayi (Obi) Dada (Holt) Morgan-Griffiths, Holness (Bojaj) Castiglione © Ilunga. Subs not used: Westbrook Attendance 288
Star Man: Brooklyn Ilunga.