Eastbourne Borough 1
(Kealy 61′ pen)
United 4
(Dolan 13′, McGavin 22′, 70′, Ash 79′)
United bounced back with an excellent four-goal show at Priory Lane on Tuesday evening, as Gary Johnson’s side ran out comfortable winners against Eastbourne.
Calum Dolan got the evening off to a fine start, before Brett McGavin doubled the advantage with another quality finish before the break. The sending off of Eastbourne’s Lucas Defise midway through the first period left the hosts with a mountain to climb, however Callum Kealy’s second-half penalty did briefly put the result in doubt. Two more quality strikes, from McGavin and Brad Ash put paid to that though, as United secured all three points on a freezing night in East Sussex.
Following the weekend reverse at Dartford, United boss Gary Johnson made no less than five changes, with Mark Halstead, Tom Lapslie, Jack Stobbs and Lewis Collins restored to the starting Xi alongside full debutant Archie Harris, with Rhys Lovett, Asa Hall, Dillon De Silva, Dylan Crowe and Theo Williams missing out, with all but Hall taking their places on the substitutes bench.
A stop-start opening ten minutes was eventually put to bed, as United wrestled control of the game.
A Stobbs cross onto the head of Ash – who headed wide of the far post – failed to serve as a warning to the home backline, as The Gulls opened the scoring in the 13th minute.
After picking up possession on the edge of the area, Dolan worked space for himself to fire in a shot from the right hand-side, with the end result seeing the ball zip past the diving Harrison Foulkes, and into the back of the net.
Torquay’s players swiftly backed that up with another strike of quality.
In a central position 20 yards out, McGavin added another excellent strike to his growing collection of ‘Shooter Specials’ with a low drive that curled past Foulkes’ outstretched hand to make it 2-0 in the 22nd minute.
If that wasn’t good enough, the prospects of three points for Johnson’s men were improved four minutes later, as The Sports were reduced to ten men.
Defise’s foul on Ash just outside the central circle was obvious enough, and with it being the Eastbourne man’s second bookable offence, the referee wasted no time in producing another yellow card, followed by a red.
At that stage, Borough were unable to get near United, with Dolan and Ash both firing efforts wide prior to the change of ends, before a thunderous 25-yarder from Stobbs cannoned off the crossbar to round off a one-way first half.
There appeared to be no change to pattern of the game once things got back underway, with the half barely three minutes old when an Ash cross from the byline found Stobbs at the back stick – only for his header to be kept out of the empty net by a last-gasp clearance ahead of the goalline.
With the match resembling a training match at times, it was going to take something unusual to change that pattern and so it proved on the hour-mark.
With Harris – who enjoyed a highly promising first start – getting into a tangle with his opponent, it appeared if the referee had a decision to make it would fall United’s way, however, the man in the middle thought otherwise, and awarded a penalty against the young Bournemouth loanee.
Halstead nearly kept out Kealy’s low drive, however with the arrears reduced, it signalled a temporary change of script in what had become a rather predictable story.
Chances at both ends was the perfect illustration of a much more open contest, with Williams firing wide when played into the box, before Dean Moxey came up with a marvellous clearance from Kealy’s header to prevent his header crossing the line.
On 70 minutes, however, the result was put beyond doubt with another sublime finish.
With Ash brought down cynically on the edge of the box, McGavin exacted full revenge with the resulting free-kick by slamming the ball into the top-corner via the crossbar. 3-1.
Ash’s persistent running was a feature throughout United’s impressive performance, however, without a goal to show for it, the Gulls striker may have looked back on the evening with a measure of disappointment.
With eleven minutes remaining though, the former Weymouth hitman showed just why Johnson brought him to Plainmoor.
Picking up the ball 30 yards from goal, Ash dashed forward before unleashing a ferocious shot that soared into the roof of the net to round off the scoring.
On a night of quality goals, United may well have saved the best until last.
More chances came and went before the final whistle, however when the action eventually came to an end, the wonderful travelling support were left to acclaim a thoroughly satisfying victory, and just reward for their commitment on a cold Tuesday evening.
Three wins out of four – including back-to-back wins on Artificial Turf certainly makes promising reading.
Onto Tonbridge on Saturday.
EASTBOURNE BOROUGH: 13. Harrison Foulkes, 7. Shiloh Remy (3. Archie Proctor, HT), 8. Jack Clarke (22. Billy Vigar, 60′), 15. Imran Uche, 16. Freddie Carter, 18. Fletcher Holman (20. Leone Gravata, HT), 24. Lucas Defise, 25. Callum Kealy, 26. David Sesay, 28, George Brown, 47. Louis Collins.
SUBS NOT USED: 2. Scott Leslie, 12. Jay Beckford.
Yellow Cards: Defise 20′, Gravata 53′,
Yellow Card / Red Card: Defise 26′
UNITED: 1. Mark Halstead, 4. Tom Lapslie (19. Theo Williams, 59′), 6. Ross Marshall (2. Dylan Crowe, 74′), 10. Lewis Collins, 11. Brad Ash, 14. Brett McGavin, 20. Callum Dolan (30. Ethon Archer, 80′), 21. Dean Moxey (c), 23. Ollie Tomlinson, 26. Archie Harris, 27. Jack Stobbs
SUBS NOT USED: 17. Dillon De Silva, 22. Rhys Lovett.
Yellow Cards: Marshall 48′, Archer 90′
Attendance: 1,183