Football family turn out for Eastbourne Town - club where they like to do things right (and win 6-2)

While government ministers and league officials agonise over whether those upstarts at Priory Lane should dispense with that absurd elite tag, Eastbourne Town know better. Just beneath the Town Hall clock, there is stability and continuity. Chairman Dave Jenkins welcomes spectators at the gate, digital thermometer in hand. Angela Myall, dowager duchess, sits contentedly in the Sid Myall (and Taffy Jones) Stand. Chris Winterton, third generation of his goalkeeping family, warms up pre-match with dad Dave – who will later be spotted as Grandad Dave, proudly pottering round the touchline with the fourth generation - Chris’s toddler triplets. There is change, but no change: it is just how a football club should be. Town have enjoyed a less than perfect start to the season, but on this evidence they will be powerful title contenders. They had too much firepower for Hassocks, who just about kept the first half-hour goalless but crumpled in the end. Some observers speak of the haves and the have-nots in the Southern Combination. The Robins haven’t an awful lot, but they hold their own – staying true to a policy of investing in their ground rather than the playing budget, and keeping a family feel under the long-serving managership of Dave John. Indeed, when young substitute Joe Bull swung a magnificent crossfield ball from touchline to touchline, I said it was the pass of the match. And the Hassocks supporter standing next to me, replied: “Yep, put that one in your notebook - actually that’s my son!” Consider it done, sir. But holding your own when Town are in gear and motoring is another challenge altogether. John Lambert’s men have almost everything: shape, confidence, strength and lethal striking power. And over the 90 minutes they were commanding. A 6-2 scoreline brooks no argument, and you might say Hassocks were lucky to get the two – a little late flurry that had pulled them back to 4-2 with six minutes left. Town’s blue and yellow always has a distinguished, rather regal feel, and on Saturday they looked imperious. Skipper Simon Johnson directed operations from a deep midfield position that Hassocks never dealt with, sometimes with neat pass and move tactics through midfield and sometimes sending his front men pounding on to raking long through balls. A master-class. Nathan Crabb saw an early effort deflected for a corner and Jack Shonk pinged a shot just past the near post, and then on the half-hour George Taggart’s direct free-kick was saved at full stretch. And finally, on 34 minutes, Shonk nicked the ball from a hesitant defender and set up the lively Bright Temba for 1-0. Before half-time, Hassocks had imploded. Crabb doubled the score from a right-wing corner, and right on the 45 minutes a smartly-taken free-kick set up a third goal, Temba scrambling in from close range. Ten minutes after the break, Town claimed a fourth with a little slice of fortune. A haplessly out-of-position linesman missed an offside, and from the same move Johnson earned a marginal free-kick powerfully headed home by a towering Sam Cole. And then a novelty moment – at least for those reporters who usually cover ‘elite’ football: Hassocks centre-forward Charlie Pitcher sin-binned after loudly disputing a handball decision. The frustrated striker did actually not return after his ten minutes of shame: he was substituted and trudged away for an early shower. And other than a flurry of substitutions, not a lot happened until the startling Hassocks revival – goals by bright young substitute Alfie Loversidge and Jack Troak on 78 and 84 minutes had the visitors briefly dreaming of an upset. But an indignant Town restored the superiority, Dan Hull converting a Johnson corner and substitute Matt Rodrigues-Barbosa seeing his shot deflected past the keeper. And with the very last kick of the match, Johnson hit the post. It didn’t matter: Town had made their mark.