After a tough draw against Canterbury and then a mid-season break, the 1st XI was looking forward to getting back and gaining another 3 points against traditionally a hard fixture in Eastbourne away. Although on paper a mid-season break would mean we could recover from any niggles, the team had some late dropouts and we knew a strong team effort was needed to get the win.

Eastbourne started the game with a high price, which took some time for the defence to figure out, but after an initial period, we managed to get a hold of the game, with screens Lewis Burnham and Charlie “King of Forests” Speller working well and supplied our forwards with good ball. We were getting a lot of success on the right-hand side and created several chances before a Short corner was awarded in which Ian Harvey slotted away to give Blackheath a deserved lead. Then there was a sense of Déjà vu where another short corner was awarded 5 minutes after and Harvey played mind games and sent the keeper the wrong way to bring up his and the teams second.

The second half got underway and we were able to score a great team goal, where some patience in distribution from the defence got the ball to the left-hand side and Harvey collected and delivered a hard strike into the dee which Kristis Bubnelis deflected to open his account in the 1st team and put us in a strong position at 3-0 up. Then Eastbourne did have the better hold on the game and there was ten minutes where James “The Cat” Craigmyle came into the game with some superb saves, which at times was ridiculous. The pressure did finally end with Eastbourne scoring a goal after a strong finish to make it 3-1.

However, with 10 minutes to go, Blackheath once again took hold of the game and finished the game well, and all nerves were settled when the resident 1st Team Doctor Andy Slack managed to grab a late goal which pleased his travelling army of supporters to make it 4-1. Winning away from home (and a long journey of that) is always difficult and therefore the team put in a decent shift and got the 3 points that were duly deserved. Bring on Old Georgians this Saturday, where a win would consolidate our position in the league and cement a good start to the 2021/22 campaign.