A slow start to the game from City was capitalised upon by the visitors. A miscommunication along the Hoop’s back line, following a lofted through ball, allowed Charley Kendall to tip the ball past the debutant Kie Plumley and finish into an empty net.

Eastbourne carried on their momentum, a cross field pass from Jaden Perez found Joel Rollinson on the right whose crisp first touched allowed the winger to fire a cross goal shot wide of the far post.

City’s attempt at an equaliser came through the left foot of Josh Ashby as his strike from the edge of the box forced a diving save from Lee Worgan to tip the ball around his near post.

Lewis Coyle also tried his luck; the wing back cut inside onto his favoured left foot and fired a shot straight down the throat of Worgan who pushed the effort away from danger.

With half an hour on the clock, Elliot Benyon had a golden chance to equalise, Coyle’s long-range shot was parried straight onto the right foot of City’s number 9 yet his volley sailed wide of the post, much to his dismay.

However, on the stroke of halftime, The Sports doubled their lead through another strike from Kendall. The forward drove at the City defence and into the box where he planted his effort into the top right-hand corner, giving Plumley no chance.

Halftime: Oxford City 0 – 2 Eastbourne Borough

City started the second half the brighter of the two sides, Coyle drove down Borough’s touchline and cut it back for Joe Iaciofano to tap it in, but a goal line clearance denied the forward from reducing the deficit.

Soon after, Plumley stopped Kendall from taking home the match ball, a low reactive save from Plumley pushed away a rifling strike from Eastbourne’s current top scorer.

60 minutes in, Benyon returned fire as his header, following a Zac McEachran cross, forced Worgan to scramble along his line to deny the forward from making it 3 in 3 games.

Daniel Oldfield made 3 substitutions in quick succession, with 20 minutes left, in an attempt to change the game up, seeing Jacob Bancroft, Ewan Clark, and Nana Owusu enter the fray.

The Hoops created a late flurry of chances in the last ten minutes, strikes from Iaciofano, Clark and Owusu all sought to find the bottom right corner but all saw Worgan dive low to his left to push the ball round the post with his left arm.

Oldfield’s men now look to a visit from Billericay Town to the Velocity stadium next week as they seek to grab their first 3 points of 2022. 

Fulltime: Oxford City 0 – 2 Eastbourne Borough

Starting XI: Plumley, Asare, Harmon, Ashby, Matsuzaka (Clark 72’), Coyle (Owusu 72’), Fleet, Benyon, McEachran (Bancroft 70’), Iaciofano, Kyprianou

Unused Subs: Rowan, Davies