The Venue:
Compton Place Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 1EA.
By Josh Cole
Another away trip for The ‘Gate as we head to Sussex to take on Eastbourne Town!
Last time out we returned to winning ways by beating Sheppey United at home, 3-2! Read the full match report from that game by clicking here.
View how that result changed the league table by clicking here.
New signings Emmanuel Oke, TT Walters & Sam Blackman are all available to play in tomorrow’s game! Other team news includes Tom Wray serving his suspension and he can play tomorrow!
EASTBOURNE TOWN – THEIR SEASON SO FAR:
Eastbourne Town currently sit in 11th place so far on 41 points from 31 games played. Their 2024/25 campaign started in the FA Cup extra preliminary round with a 2-0 win at home against Little Common. However, in their first league match they lost 1-3 at home to Beckenham Town and then got knocked out of the FA Cup in the preliminary round after losing away to Burgess Hill.
In their next three league games they picked up two wins both away, at Merstham and Phoenix Sports but lost at home to Burgess Hill. They were also knocked out of the FA Trophy, in the first qualifying round to Kingstonian. The following four league fixtures again were mixed results, with wins against Erith (2-1) and Hythe (1-2) a draw against Three Bridges at home but a huge 4-1 loss away at Deal Town.
The Saffrons then suffered two losses back-to-back against Herne Bay and Ashford, but they won 1-2 away at Roffey in the Sussex county cup second round. A 4-0 defeat at HDP against Margate and a 1-2 loss against Ramsgate rounded off a pretty bad spell for Eastbourne in the league.
Their next three league games resulted in wins, with a loss against Horsham in the Sussex County Cup sandwiched in between. They ended 2024 in bad form, out of seven games they won once, drew once and lost the other five. This hasn’t continued into 2025, in fact, quite the opposite for The Saffrons as they have won three times, drew five times and lost once since the turn of the new year.
LAST FIVE: EASTBOURNE TOWN
2-2 Draw vs Sheppey United, home (League)
0-3 Win vs Steyning Town, away (League)
1-1 Draw vs Burgess Hill, away (League)
0-0 Draw vs Hythe Town, home (League)
0-1 Win vs Ashford United, away (League)
LAST FIVE: MARGATE
2-2 Draw vs Phoenix Sports, home (League)
3-0 Win vs Lancing, home (League)
1-0 Loss vs AFC Croydon, away (League)
3-0 Loss vs Sittingbourne, away (League)
3-2 Win vs Sheppey United, home (League)
STATS COMPARISON IN ALL COMPS:
EASTBOURNE
Matches played: 36
Goals scored: 52
Goals conceded: 57
GD: -5
Clean sheets: 8
MARGATE
Matches played: 43
Goals scored: 83
Goals conceded: 45
GD: +38
Clean sheets: 16
IN THE REVERSE FIXTURE…
The ‘Gate ran riot at Hartsdown Park on Saturday the 26th of October, beating Eastbourne Town 4-0 on home turf! Goals coming from Ibrahim Olutade in the 43rd minute, Jordon Ababio in the 51st minute, Ben Greenhalgh in the 85th minute and to seal the three points and the fourth goal, scored by Ben Allen in the 96th minute of play!
HEAD-TO-HEAD (all data comes from the Margate History Website)
Games played: 2
Margate wins: 2
Draws: 0
Eastbourne Town wins: 0
We have only played against The Saffrons twice. The first time came in 1975 in a second qualifying round FA Cup tie at Eastbourne Town’s ground where Margate won, 0-2. The last time we met was the 4-0 win for The ‘Gate earlier on in the season!
MATCH OFFCIALS:
Referee: Patrick Jolliffe
Assistants: Owen Lawrence & John-Patrick Kane
UP THE ‘GATE
