Eastbourne Borough denied Chelmsford win - by the narrowest of margins

Denied by the width of a white line. Eastbourne Borough so nearly snatched all three points from their 1-1 draw with Chelmsford City on Saturday, but a hairline decision and a linesman’s flag foiled them.
Eastbourne Borough take on Chelmsford / Picture: Andy PellingEastbourne Borough take on Chelmsford / Picture: Andy Pelling
Eastbourne Borough take on Chelmsford / Picture: Andy Pelling

As the clock touched ninety minutes, a well-balanced contest had seen the Sports take a first-half lead, swiftly cancelled out by City, and after that, neither side had done quite enough to merit the win. But Chris Whelpdale is not a player to see a match drift to a sleepy close.

Rescuing a right-wing move, Whelpdale drove a wedge through and behind the City back line, and his loping stride just reached the ball and pulled it back across goal, where young substitute Leone Gravata joyfully popped it into the net at the back post for an apparent 2-1 victory.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Goal? The elation lasted barely five seconds, for in the confusion assistant referee Sean Phillips had raised his flag. Not offside, surely, because the ball was played back? No, but Phillips believed Whelpdale had taken the ball out of play. No goal, then – and within a minute or so of stoppage time, the game was finished and the points were shared.

Eastbourne Borough take on Chelmsford / Picture: Andy PellingEastbourne Borough take on Chelmsford / Picture: Andy Pelling
Eastbourne Borough take on Chelmsford / Picture: Andy Pelling

From a distance, it was hard to be sure, but the evidence of the club video camera showed that the ball was on, and not over, the goal-line when Whelpdale hooked it back. Two points wrongly snatched away, then? Probably, but never mind. In a distressed, war-torn, Covid-ravaged world, a National South football match is a fleck of dust in the eye of history. There’s always another game, and next week it may well be Borough’s turn to benefit.

Danny Bloor’s line-up is getting a settled look, and with Greg Luer resting his tweaked hamstring, Joel Rollinson and Dean Cox once again filled the wide slots. And with players now beginning to click with each other’s roles as well as their own, several enjoyed their best games of the season.

Franco, beaten only by the sweetest of sweet volleys which no keeper would have stopped, was assured throughout, and the back line was organised and strong. James Vaughan, with a brain as quick as his feet, is slotting in neatly at right back, while Kai Innocent on the left is eager and positive. The Ferry-Hammond partnership might sound like a firm of architects, but they are building something exciting at the centre of midfield. James Hammond is growing into the number eight role for which Bloor signed him, and he was directing and controlling operations all afternoon.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And then there is Whelpdale. How and why Chelmsford ever played him at full-back is a bit baffling, for the stamina, impetus and relentless inventiveness that he brings to attacking midfield is phenomenal. Charlie Walker is revelling in their partnership, and frankly this borough side looks full of goals.

Off the bench, Charlie Lambert brought energy, Charley Kendall brought a late burst of determined running, and Leone Gravata brought electric pace and ball skills, and popped up with the winning goal – or not…

Back to the start. The Sports took the game to Chelmsford, for whom an accomplished Lee Worgan wore the keeper’s jersey. But early exchanges brought only a bit of range-finding. Hammond curled a free-kick just too long for everyone, and at the other end Phil Roberts raced on to a raking long ball, checked inside, and was thwarted only by an outstanding strong-arm save by Ravizzoli.

Several times, the Clarets’ standard out-ball released the rampaging Barry Cotter down the flank from left-back, but there was rarely an end product, and the Sports always looked likelier. Early threats had come down the right from Whelpdale and Rollinson, with Worgan twice forced into a couple of clutching saves low down in his goal area.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But the breakthrough came from the opposite wing. Just past the half-hour, a fluent touchline exchange between Cox and Innocent – master and apprentice – brought an immaculate cross which Whelpdale met with an emphatic header that Harry Kane would have been pleased with.

1-0 then, and something to build on. Another wicked cross by Innocent drew a last-ditch learance for a corner, and then Ade Oluwo tried a rash bit of total football, exchanging passes with his keeper but almost letting in Ferry for a gift goal.

But the lead lasted only six minutes. A high-orbit diagonal pass from the right cleared the home centre-backs but fell perfectly for Adam Morgan, whose immaculate half-volley arrowed into the bottom corner past a blameless Ravizzoli.

City began the second half brightly, with substitute striker Adam Liddle finding little channels that were previously unexplored. The Sports were under sustained pressure for a spell as Chelmsford dominated the ball, but they didn’t buckle.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Chances were traded – Walker forcing Elliott Ward into an almost suicidal back header at one end, and then Chez Isaac firing one too high before Alex Teniola’s header shuddered the crossbar. But the final phases saw the home side wrench back control. Lambert’s glancing header, in front of an invitingly wide goal, had far too much glance. Could there yet be a winner?

But the last-minute answer to that question was decided – by the width of that white line.

Borough: Ravizzoli; Vaughan, James, Dickenson, Innocent; Hammond, Ferry; Rollinson (Gravata 61), Whelpdale, Walker (Kendall 85), Cox (Lambert 54). Unused subs: Glover, Blackmore.

Referee: Michael Ryan

Borough MoM: a tough call in a team performance, but James Hammond was always at the heart of it.

Related topics: