Next Match – Eastbourne Borough – Home

Twerton Park stages its first match of the new year on Saturday when City welcome Eastbourne Borough in the National League.

While Jerry Gill and his Eastbourne opposite number Danny Bloor might look forward to a less dramatic game than the first between the two at Priory Lane back in August, fans will certainly be in for a treat if there is any repeat. In the middle of the summer heatwave a match of two penalties and two own goals saw City fight back from a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3 courtesy of a 95th minute winner from Kieran Parselle.

While that launched a successful first couple of months of the season for City, The Sports experienced an inconsistent Autumn and their present position of seventh is a result of improved results of late.

As well as City, five other teams have gained maximum points from their visit to the Sussex club but six wins on the road have included victories at Oxford, Ebbsfleet and Havant. The latter was achieved on Boxing Day but Sunday’s return fixture at Priory Lane saw another home defeat.

This will be Eastbourne’s second longest away trip of the season which will prepare them for the 350 mile midweek trip to Taunton in ten days time!

Following wins against Uxbridge and Worthing, The Sports fell to Maidenhead in the FA Cup while a second win of the season at Ebbsfleet led to their Trophy hopes being ended by Bracknell Town who of course City face next Saturday in the fourth round.

Injuries mean that Cody Cooke and Alex Fletcher no longer feature near the top of the League’s goal scoring charts which see Eastbourne’s Jake Hutchinson currently in third place with twelve.

Matches at Twerton between the two clubs tend to be close with only two of the twelve matches since the first in 2004 ending in more than a single goal win.

In fact City have only suffered the one defeat in that sequence although they have managed to win just half of the remainder.

The last of those came twelve months ago when two fine headed goals from Alex Fletcher secured a 2-1 scoreline in City’s favour.

There was an excellent attendance for the last home fixture against Chippenham and with the average for league matches now over 1100 it is hoped that a similar large crowd will enjoy a much needed home win.

As always tickets for the match can be bought online from the Club’s website.