V
Eastbourner 0 – 4 Leatherhead
The Tanners demonstrated a textbook performance in ruthlessly collecting the points at basement side Eastbourne Town on Saturday, with a brace of goals in each half underlining their play off ambitions.
On hard dry pitch, with the warmth from the April sun sufficient to ensure it was shirt sleeves all round, the match almost had an air of pre season about it, and for the first 20 minutes the casual observer could have been forgiven for thinking that, as both teams were drawn into a low tempo opening spell, with little sign of cohesion.
This may have been a sign of the home side’s limitations, but it certainly can not be said to be the case for the visitors, on the back of a stunning 7 win sequence, and it just needed a spark to kick start the side into gear.
In the 30th minute that spark came, igniting in the right boot of Mark Simmons, to unleash a thunderbolt from fully thirty yards which went searing past Russell Tanner in the home goal like an exocet locked on to the top right hand corner of the net.
Eastbourne now wore a familiar look at knowing dejection, having done little wrong but now finding themselves in arrears, and it was no surprise that Leatherhead began to exert a slowly increasing stranglehold on the game which gradually drained the life from their vulnerable hosts.
Jack Macleod worked himself an opportunity on the right but Tanner held on to his low drive, then Chris Boulter saw an effort equally well held with Greg Andrews sniffing for any spillages.
It was only a matter of time, and the time when it came was the 35th minute, as Kev Terry, a constant menace all afternoon, chased an over hit pass down the left flank, and stretching every sinew kept the ball alive to feed Rob Hill just inside the area.
He in turn looked up and saw the advancing Greg Andrews, and his finish was expertly placed inches inside the post with a minimum of fuss but maximum efficiency.
If Eastbourne had hoped to come out after the interval buoyed by their manager’s words, they were soon cast well adrift when a minute after the restart, the referee pointed to the spot to confirm a slightly harsh view that Rob Hill’s cross had been intentionally handled.
With regular penalty taker Hutchings resting on crutches on the touchline, up strode a determined looking Jon Coke; no one dared argue and nor did the keeper as be buried the spot kick with aplomb to effectively end Eastbourne’s afternoon.
They probably wished it had have ended there as things only went downhill, firstly they were reduced to ten men after a second yellow card resulted in a dismissal, and after a series of chances missed as all and sundry in a Green shirt tried to get in on the act, it was left to Andrews to add a coat of gloss with a fine finish from 12 yards out in the 90th minute.
Leatherhead: Harris, Coke, Dean (Corbett), Boulter, Goodwell, Thompson (O Shea), Simmons, Hill, Andrews, Terry (Phillips), Macleod
Report by Sir Richard of Wilkinson