Steyning Town's draw with ten-man Eastbourne United 'felt like a loss'

Steyning Town manager Gerry Murphy. Picture by Derek Martin

The result leaves Steyning in sixth after 14 games in their first ever season at Step 5 in the non-league pyramid.

Former Loxwood defender Matt Boiling made his debut and the Barrowmen almost went in front in the tenth minute when an in-swinging corner looked to be sailing straight into the net only for Jordan Hawkins to produce a great save to keep it out.

However, Town did eventually break the deadlock with Matt Hards slotting in on the half-hour mark.

Jamie Banasco-Zaragoza was forced into a great save to deny a Kane Penn header midway through the second half.

Five minutes later, the hosts went down to ten with captain Paul Rogers sent off, yet that didn’t seem to change things as they clawed back level inside stoppage time.

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Murphy said: “Another point on the board but it feels like a loss after leading 1-0 and them going down to ten men.

“But as we all know ten men work harder and (that) can sometimes go against you.

“Matt Boiling had a good game on his debut, and with a couple of more additions coming in we will hopefully be a stronger squad over the coming weeks.

“We entertain Langney Wanderers on Saturday. We normally have lots of goals when we play them so (it’s) an exciting game to look forward to.”

Steyning Town: Banasco-Zaragoza, Boiling, Clarke, Faber, Gathern, Hards, Maher, Sabino (Radmore 80), Spano, Andrade (Romain 85), Weston (Bloomfield 65).