Crowborough Athletic 2-1 Eastbourne United - We want to try to establish ourselves in the Isthmian League and build something, says promotion winning Crowborough Athletic manager Sean Muggeridge

Crowborough Athletic 2 – 1 Eastbourne United
Location	Crowborough Community Stadium, Fermor Road, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 3BU
Kickoff	04/05/2025 15:00

CROWBOROUGH ATHLETIC  2-1  EASTBOURNE UNITED
Southern Combination League Premier Division Play-Off Final
Sunday 4 May 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Alderbrook

CROWBOROUGH ATHLETIC manager Sean Muggeridge says he was feeling absolute relief and there were a couple of tears flowing after his players sealed promotion by winning the Southern Combination League Premier Division Play-Off Final.

The second largest ever crowd to attend a football match in Crowborough (1,105), saw Muggeridge’s men come out with all guns blazing, scoring twice inside 218 seconds, through striker Rushaar Samuel-Smikle’s 23^rd goal of the season and an own-goal from Eastbourne United centre-half Koby Farrell.

Eastbourne United pulled a goal back on the stroke of half-time through striker Charlie Ball, clinically despatching his 21^st goal of the season.

Referee Matthew Dyson twice pulled out his red-card during the second half, with Crowborough Athletic centre-half Harrison Mayhew picking up his second caution for timewasting, while Eastbourne United’s left-back Samuel Scott was shown a straight red card for verbal.

Hassocks sealed automatic promotion from this ninth-tier division after picking up 97 points (31 wins, four draws and three defeats) from their 38 league outings and will be playing Isthmian League South East Division football for the very first time next season.

Muggeridge’s men finished runners-up with 81 points (25 wins, six draws and seven defeats), while Anthony Storey’s Eastbourne United finished in third-place on 74 points (23 wins, five draws and 10 defeats), with Haywards Heath Town (73) and Petersfield Town (71) also finishing in the play-offs.

Eastbourne United beat Haywards Heath Town 2-1 on Tuesday night’s Play-Off Semi-Final, while Crowborough Athletic beat Petersfield Town 2-0 and will be playing Isthmian League football for the first time since 2008-2009.

“I mean, this has been building for a few years,” said Muggeridge.

“It’s just not players and the management team that get the accolades for this year but I want to go on record to say it’s been building for four years – Alan Murray, coach beforehand, Rob Kane, if I’ve missed anyone at all, I’ll apologise.

“It’s been very emotional at times.  I mean last year we lost in the Play-Off Semi-Final, lost in the Cup Final, we should really have won that Semi-Final last year and I think we were good enough to go up last year, that’s my honest opinion but it didn’t happen.

“As play-off’s do, as you’ve seen today, it could’ve been more comfortable for us but yes it’s brilliant for the town.  We’ve got so many local based players and it’s so important. As you can see out there, 1,105 people, obviously Eastbourne United had quite a few there but we probably had the majority of it.

“I think people like to come and watch us as well because we do entertain. I don’t know what end we entertain sometimes but it’s just been amazing, amazing!

“Well, first half, they gave us, like they did on Tuesday, a lot of grit and determination for the first half-hour. We were very, very good.  I think we could’ve been more up, three or four up to be fair.

“We had a couple of one-on-ones and then what happens when you don’t take your chances, that can happen at the other end.  They put a bit more pressure on us.  We weren’t winning so much second balls and then comes a goal, so you’ve got to give them credit as well because they upped their game a little bit as well.

“We still had another chance to make it 3-1 in the second half. It’s a very nervy thing, especially a Play-Off Final. If it’s a final of a Cup, you’re actually just losing a Cup Final, with this you’re losing promotion and you’re losing what you’ve worked for the whole season.”

When asked how it felt winning promotion with his son Henry in midfield, Muggeridge replied: “Henry’s been massive for us, not because of his ability, all round with the club. He’s fantastic in the changing room.  You heard him, he’s always constantly talking, he’s very good for the youngsters.

“I don’t want to say too much about him because he’s my son and it looks like that I’m biased but anyone who knows Henry, knows that he’s a winner. His leadership skills – which we have four or five in there to be fair.  I'm just proud to do it with my son really but this was special really because we’ve worked so hard.”

Storey’s men arrived at Alderbrook on a six-match unbeaten run, since losing
3-1 to Crowborough Athletic in the Sussex RUR Charity Cup Final down in Lancing on 2 April, while Crowborough were seven games unbeaten since losing 3-0 at Hassocks on the day that their hosts claimed the league title on 29 March.

Crowborough Athletic took only 52 seconds to take the lead, through direct football.

Holding midfielder Connor Pring was inside the centre-circle inside the Crowborough half before he hit a right-footed half-volley with the outside of his boot up and over the top of Eastbourne United’s Farrell.

Pacey targetman Samuel-Smikle, who was unplayable during the first 20 or so minutes, latched onto the ball and clinically cushioned his right-footed half-volley across the advancing goalkeeper to find the far corner from 18-yards.

“I think keeper’s find it hard with Rushi because he’s quicker than what people think he is and I think that’s what happened.  He came through, he beat the defender and the goalkeeper didn’t know what to do because he thought he was going to get there and stopped and he put it in,” said Muggeridge.

“Football is all about, it’s not on the grass you play, it’s not all long ball but it’s the right ball and that was the right ball. We put a lot of pressure on teams by putting it into those areas but we can also play football, as you see in a couple of instances in the first half, so we have got pretty much everything. We can go long, we can go on the ground.”

Crowborough Athletic were in dream land, doubling their lead with their next chance, the goal coming with only three minutes and 38 seconds on the clock, following an own-goal.

Towering wideman Stephen Smith played the ball into the box and the outstanding Samuel-Smikle challenged Eastbourne United’s other centre-half Ollie Hyland inside the box, who crashed to the ground like a house of cards.

Goalkeeper James Broadbent dived to his right to try to keep the ball out to thwart Samuel-Smikle.  The ball flicked off Farrell and rolled towards the bottom left-hand corner of the goal, the keeper having a second bite of the cherry, stretching low to his left and getting a strong glove to the ball, flicking the ball into his own-goal. 

The own-goal could have gone down for keeper Broadbent or Farrell, who both touched the ball after Samuel-Smikle did.

“A lot of people think he misses quite a lot but he makes a lot of chances for himself and he’s not going to score every chance or he wouldn’t be playing at this level,” said Muggeridge.

“Until I see the Veo, I don’t know. I know he missed it, I thought it hit him, I thought it hit the defender and went in.

“We were on top then. I thought we deserved to be 2-0 up minimum. I think we probably could’ve put the game to bed by half-time – but credit to them, they didn’t give up. Two-nil in a play-off final, they could’ve just rolled over but they didn’t.

“I’m not saying I’m a genius or anything like that. We did work on things. We came in training on Saturday morning and we worked on a lot of  things because they are dangerous on a lot of things.

“In the Cup Final we won 3-1 and there were a couple of dangerous points and one of them was starting well and we put a lot of emphasis.  They can’t really train it bit you can get their mentality right for it.

“I could just tell we were going to start well. You always get that as a manager and the feel of it. The warm-up was really good and we’ve got some experienced players, there’s some young players in there, but slightly experienced players did come through a little bit today.”

Eastbourne United’s right-back Arthur Grout had a couple of free-kick chances to add to his impressive tally of eight goals, stroking a right-footed free-kick from just outside the penalty area across goalkeeper Charlie Holmwood and bouncing past the far post in the 11^th minute.

Holmwood launched a deep free-kick towards the back post where the outstanding Smith rose and knocked the ball down for right-winger Marcus Goldsmith to stretch and flick his left-footed half-volley straight at Broadbent in the middle from 12-yards.

Muggeridge said: “It could’ve been three! We’re playing at this level because obviously when you’re playing in the Premier League, you might be four-up anyway because you’ve got the quality of players.  I’m not disrespecting the players I’ve got, you can’t score every goal you create, it wouldn’t be realistic, so I was getting a bit frustrated because I knew Eastbourne United wouldn’t give up.

“I knew 2-0 would be dodgy if they got one back, so I was just screaming at that and screaming at another couple of other chances that we had that we needed to go 3-0 up really.”

Crowborough centre-half Harrison Mayhew picked up his first booking in the 25^th minute for tripping Eastbourne attacking midfielder Oliver Hull just a yard outside the penalty area.

Goalkeeper Holmwood lined up a six-man wall and Grout stroked his right-footed free-kick around the wall and only just missed the foot of the right-hand post.

“He’s an unbelievable player to be fair, he’s a very, very good player. I think he’s come from Sussex Academy. He’s an incredible player and every time we gave a free-kick away outside the box, luckily it was only a couple he had. Even the ones he missed weren’t that far away – he’s a quality player,” added Muggeridge.

Crowborough Athletic were profligate in front of goal just 43 seconds later when they hit Eastbourne United on the counter-attack.

Samuel-Smikle’s hooked pass put 26-goal attacking midfielder Harry Forster through on goal but Broadbent made amends and dived to his right to push the ball towards safety, as Farrell was guilty of some more woeful defending.

Forster drove his right-footed free-kick into the four-man wall from 30-yards and the ball went behind for the first of three Crowborough corners.

Henry Muggeridge delivered a deep corner from the left and Smith rose at the back post and steered his header past the near post in the 31^st minute, before Eastbourne United started to gain some composure into the game.

Broadbent played a short free-kick to Scott, who hit a long ball into the left-channel, the ball was flicked on by Oliver Hull and striker James Hull stretched and sent his left-footed shot over from a tight angle, as Harrison Mayhew closed the gate.

Crowborough Athletic produced a sweeping move when Pring and Samuel-Smikle both linked up down the left within the final third and Samuel-Smikle charged past Hyland and his right-footed shot across the keeper lacked power as the ball trickled past the far post from 18-yards.

Eastbourne United made things nervy, as they pulled a goal back with 44 minutes and 54 seconds on the clock, following a spell of pressure.

Farrell recycled the ball forward from within the centre-circle, into a crowd of players, the ball was flicked on and dropped to James Hull, who played a fine 10-yard pass to put Charlie Ball in behind, who clinically drove his left-footed shot past Holmwood just left-of-centre from 15-yards.

“We had two or three chances to clear it. We didn’t win second balls. This is what I’m saying about the last 15 minutes of the first half,” said Muggeridge.

“I don’t know whether we got nervous or not and they came into the game a little bit. They obviously didn’t start very well and maybe it’s a bit of both. Like I said they came back into the game a little bit.  It was a good goal, a good finish.

“We had a one-one-one with Fozzy (Forster) and we didn’t put it away when it was 2-0 and they went up and scored.

“It was probably one of their only chances, I think, but they are clinical. They’ve scored so many goals, so they’ll always going to be a threat at some point and that’s what happened.”

Muggeridge admitted: “Going in at 2-1, I was a little bit worried that they were going to sneak one and then it was going to go down to penalties again.  We were absolutely superb especially when we went down to 10 men.

“What did I say at half-time? It was a bit mixed feelings for me really. I was pleased with the performance in the first half-hour but I wasn’t very happy at all with the last 15 minutes.

“Football is a simple game, now when you complicate it that’s when problems start and we started complicating the game. 

“We were putting it in behind, we were getting so much success, not just Rushie, Steve Smith and Marcus Goldsmith were causing hassle, just by putting it in behind.

“People like to see pretty football but we don’t always play pretty football. We see the situations that we need to do and we do it and I think that’s what happened. We’ve got to keep doing what we did in the first half, first 30 minutes but it didn’t sort of pan out like that.”

Crowborough Athletic missed a glorious chance to kill the game off with nine minutes and 59 seconds on the clock, following a three-man set-piece routine.

Goldsmith threw the ball short some five-yards back to right-back Jack Mayhew, who whipped in a quality deep cross towards the far corner of the six-yard box where an unmarked Smith rose and headed down, across the keeper and agonisingly past the far post.

“Well, Steve Smith, nine times out of 10 puts that away. I think he just tried to put it back across the goal,” said Muggeridge.

“I don’t want to give my tactics away but this is why we play him on the left because when the crosses come in, he always wins that header and of its one-v-one, then he’s always going to win the header, it’s whether it goes in or not.  I think he tried to be a little bit cute with it.”

Storey made a tactical switch by removing Hyland from centre-half and putting him in to join Brett Patton as a holding midfield, pushed both their full-backs high and leaving two centre-halves in Farrell and Siji Akinlusi, who had just come on for former Ashford United central midfielder Rhyle Ovenden, who offered nothing.

Crowborough Athletic were awarded a free-kick just over the half-way line on the right-hand side and Harrison Mayhew was waiting to take it.  As soon as he drilled his free-kick upfield, the referee walked over and pulled out a yellow card and then out came a red-card, as Crowborough Athletic were harshly down to 10 men (16:21).

“Well, I think personally is that their management team won’t mind me saying it because I’ll do the same, but they kept going on and on about wasting time and I think what happened was, I don’t think the referee realised he booked him and I think if he had known he had booked him he probably would’ve got away with it because he put the yellow out straight away, he put the yellow back and then he didn’t do anything for about two or three seconds.

“I think he realised – someone said he’s already been booked (that was me, Sean!) – so I think he’s very unlucky because he never gave him a warning….”

Tom Boddy hit a long free-kick into the Eastbourne United box and Samuel-Smikle burst into life by outmuscling Akinlusi inside the box but his shot was weak and rolled into the gloves of Broadbent for a comfortable pick up at his near-post.

Muggeridge said: “That was another good chance. We had quite a lot of chances in the game.

“I think he was just so tired.  We were trying to get him off but he was still such a threat and the plan didn’t go to plan because we got a player sent-off.  Normally we would’ve brought the wingers on and gone for it a little bit more and stretched them but we couldn’t because we were down to 10 men.

“When they went down to 10 men, we thought we were doing alright so we didn’t change it (until stoppage time).”

The red card gave Eastbourne United an invitation to dominant for the final 15 minutes, with Hyland finding himself down the right flank within the channel and holding the ball up from Crowborough’s left-back Joshua Turner.

The former Crow played a reverse pass into Charlie Ball, who cut into the box and lost composure when through on goal, lashing his right-footed drive high over the crossbar from 15-yards.

Muggeridge said: “If you’re not going to punish teams when we had the chances in the first half, then they’re a good side, they’re always going to have chances and I think it would’ve been a good goal if he had scored from there.  I know he was in the box but he should’ve hit the target but the pressure of the game, I suppose, he’s lifted his head and put it over.”

Referee Matthew Dyson booked Smith for a challenge on Eastbourne United’s left-winger Tarik Ibrahim and there were a couple of Eastbourne players surrounding the referee within the left-channel of the pitch.

Scott must have said something and out came a straight red-card and it was ten-a-side in the 79^th minute.

Muggeridge said: “I’m not going to be an Arsene Wenger (the former Arsenal manager), I didn’t see it but I didn’t see the challenge Steve Smith made. It looked like a booking to me but I couldn’t quite see it.

“It was a borderline red, I think. I think he got the ball, I’m not sure, I can’t really name it. I can’t really say anything about it because I didn’t really see the whole tackle and I definitely don’t know why he got sent off. It must’ve been verbal because I didn’t see him kick out, I didn’t see him do anything….”

Eastbourne United were looking the most likely team to score the next goal and Ibrahim spun a high Jack Mayhew inside the Eastbourne half, before cutting inside and releasing James Hull down the left.

James Hull then cut into the box and his right-footed angle drive forced Holmwood to dive to his left and push the ball towards safety in the 84^th minute.

“Charlie’s been very good for us in goal this year,” said Muggeridge.

“James Hull’s a quality striker, he came from Eastbourne Town last year in the Isthmian League, so he’s a good player but Charlie’s been doing it all season.

“I’m not being cocky on this, we don’t concede a lot of chances against teams but when he’s needed, he’s always there. Theres been six or seven occasions where we’ve been 1-0 up and he’s saved it vitally and we’ve gone down the other end and scored.”

Grout played the away side’s second corner short to Ibrahim, before Grout cut inside and switched the play over to Farrell, who floated in a deep cross and Holmwood came out and failed to gather and James Hull steered his header across the keeper and sailing harmlessly wide of the far post.

Farrell put another long ball forward and Charlie Ball cut inside before his low cross was cleared away by Crowborough centre-half Boddy and Ibrahim lacked composure and placed his right-footed shot across the keeper and past the far post.

Eastbourne United’s big moment arrived with 48:43 on the clock.

Grout delivered one of the crosses of the season, hanging one up from close to the right-by-line towards two rising men at the far post.

One was Akinlusi. The other was Smith, who was operating at centre-half once Harrison Mayhew was sent-off.  One quit Tunbridge Wells when the going got tough. The other was Smith, who was excellent in the air throughout the whole game.

A closely marked Akinlusi (who was thrown further forward towards the end) jumped up and saw the newspaper headlines in his eyes.  He headed the ball onto Smith’s back and somehow the ball dropped inches wide of the left-hand post from a couple of yards from the goal-line and with it, Eastbourne United's failed promotion bid.

“I think anyone else on that pitch – if it wasn’t Smithie – I think he would’ve scored but that Grouts’ cross was like a Premier League cross really, it was absolutely superb,” said Muggeridge.

“If it would’ve gone in, I would’ve been totally disappointed but I could totally understand. That cross was superb, but Smithy, I just said it in there, Smithy and Charlie, I just said Rush is going to get all the plaudits but those two have won us the game as well because that save he made and he headed it on the back of Steve Smith’s head. He’s actually timed it well.”

Crowborough Athletic showed their class when their players and mascots formed a guard of honour for Eastbourne United’s players at the end of the game – an often occurrence you see after Rugby  - before celebrating promotion into the Isthmian League.

"I think it shows a bit of class really and we do mean it.  We're just not doing it to make it look like we're nice people, we are. It's a nice club. I'm sure they would have done the same to us if it would've been the other way round," said Muggeridge.

“It’s just relief really, absolute relief. There were a couple of tears to be fair. I don’t mind saying it because that’s this club’s done for us over the seasons and this season and they deserve that. The club deserves it and the supporters certainly deserve it and all the volunteers here.

“We have got players who are not here for money, that helps and they’ve just got the chairman in the changing room now and congratulating him.

“There’s numerous amounts of people. That result is all about what we’ve been doing as a club, especially this season. This has been building for four seasons.

“We’ll have the celebrations now, same as (Southern Combination League Premier Division champions) Steyning Town Community last year, they came straight back down so we’ve got to make sure that we don’t do that.  All the celebrations they had last year and all the rejection they had this year, we can’t do that.

“We want to try to establish ourselves in this (Isthmian League South East Division) and build something.

“I’m not looking to, at the moment, bring anyone in, unless some special player comes but then people have got to realise we can’t bung loads of money at them.”

Before they can make plans for the eighth-tier of English football, Crowborough Athletic travel down to Peacehaven next Saturday, 10 May (13:00) to play Hassocks in the Peter Bentley Cup Final.

Treble-chasing Muggeridge said: “One to go! The easy thing would be just to relax now and just sort of celebrate because it’s alright going up, cups are cups, trying ourselves at a different level is the ultimate. If you said to me, we can win today and lose the Cup Final next week, I’ll go ‘100% win today,’ but now you’ve won it, it’s the treble.

“I think we go into that quite relaxed because obviously we don’t want to lose but if we do lose, it’s not what we were trying to achieve this year. What we were trying to achieve this year was promotion.

“It will be a good game because it’s first-versus-second and hopefully it won’t turn into an end-of-season friendly or something which it can do.

“We’ve got our objectives this year, we’re both up so it could do. I’m not saying too much but it might be a game to give the players that haven’t had so much game time a game, so we’ll see.”

The last word was given to Crowborough Athletic captain and one club man Tom Boddy.

“We’ll just have to get Bods one more year won’t we? I’m not going to put pressure on him. Let’s enjoy what we’ve got at the moment, enjoy today and then we’ll talk about next season. I’ll probably bend his ear later on. Let’s see, let’s see.

“He’s just an amazing person. He had all those heartbreaks and he’s got promotion and a trophy now, so hope we can get another one for him.”

Crowborough Athletic: Charlie Holmwood, Jack Mayhew, Joshua Turner, Connor Pring (Alfie Lambden 65), Harrison Mayhew, Tom Boddy, Stephen Smith, Henry Muggeridge, Rushaar Samuel-Smikle (Tom Pearson 90), Harry Forster, Marcus Goldsmith (Leo Vowles 90).
Subs: Ollie Welbourn, Adam Larkin.

Goals: Rushaar Samuel-Smikle 1, Koby Farrell 4 (own goal)

Booked: Harrison Mayhew 25, Tom Boddy 45, Henry Muggeridge 63, Stephen Smith 78

Sent Off:  Harrison Mayhew 62

Eastbourne United: James Broadbent, Arthur Grout, Samuel Scott, Brett Patton, Koby Farrell, Ollie Hyland, Tarik Ibrahim, Rhyle Ovenden (Siji Akinlusi 59), James Hull, Oliver Hull, Charlie Ball.
Subs: Nathan Crabb, Stefanos Akras, Jack Samways, T’yano Wilson

Goal: Charlie Ball 45

Booked: Koby Farrell 46, Siji Akinlusi 71

Sent Off:  Samuel Scott 79

Attendance: 1,105
Referee: Mr Matthew Dyson
Assistants: Mr John-Patrick Kane & Mr Brendan Bradley
Fourth Official: Mr Jamie Wells