Eastbourne get FA Cup journey started - but it's not easy at Hanwell

Borough on the attack at Hanwell / Pictures: Lydia and Nick Redman

The FA Cup journey is under way for Eastbourne Borough. On Saturday in West London they steered past tricky opponents Hanwell Town with late goals from Charlie Walker and Charley Kendall.

The magic of the FA Cup is more than just a cliché. The competition fires imaginations, and every team raises its game. An ordinary side can be inspired to extraordinary heights. This match, although no classic, was exciting, combative and much closer than the league status of the two clubs suggested. Hanwell stayed in the game throughout, and they could very well have taken the tie to a Priory Lane replay.

Borough officials thought they had done their homework after watching a below-average Hanwell lose their previous league game at Uxbridge on a dreary wet Tuesday night. But by Saturday afternoon in sparkling sunshine, almost everything had changed – the personnel, the team shape, the tactics and the playing conditions. And, raising their game several notches, the West London outfit held the Sports for well over an hour.

It was a day for squad depth. With Steve James and James Ferry both injured, manager Danny Bloor slotted a very competent Jake Elliott into the back four, and gave the midfield slot to a polished, intelligent Charlie Towling.

Celebrations as Borough progress / Pictures: Lydia and Nick Redman

With Lee Worgan - confident and rarely troubled - in goal and with impressive young full-backs James Beresford and Jack Currie playing beyond their years, the Sports are now looking solid at the back again - and further forward, the manager was spoiled for choice with half a dozen in-form attackers available.