Eastbourne Borough welcome Chippenham Town to the sunny Sussex coast this afternoon – with both teams looking to return to winning ways in the National League South.

A goalless draw at Bath City last weekend saw the Sports drop points in the battle for the title, whilst Chippenham had their five-game unbeaten run come to an end in midweek.

Caine Bradbury cancelled out Matt Carson’s early effort as the Bluebirds held promotion chasing Torquay United at the break at Hardenhuish Park.

However, Offrande Zanzala put the Gulls in front on the hour mark before Matt Jay’s stoppage time effort saw the visitors leave with all three points.

The Manager

Gary Horgan joined Chippenham Town for a second spell as a player from Hungerford Town in September 2016 and joined the coaching staff for the 2017/18 season. 

He was invited to take up the manager’s position towards the end of the 2021/22 season following the departure of the previous management team and continues as manager for the 2022/23 season. 

Gary was joined by Matt Coupe, also an ex-Chippenham Town player, as his assistant to help manage the final few games of the 2021/22 season and who continues. 

Joe Sharples joined the management team in 2023/24 as Head Coach and also continues.

Danger Man

Former Borough starlet Leone Gravata joined Chippenham Town on loan from York City in September – and extended that loan to the end of the 2024/25 campaign in January 2025.

The youngster’s big breakthrough campaign came in 2022/23 for Eastbourne Borough, totalling 46 league appearances and chipping in with nine goals as Eastbourne narrowly missed out on the playoffs. Gravata made the move to National League side York City in March 2024 for an undisclosed fee.

Head-to-Head

Whilst results have been mixed at Hardenhuish Park – the Sports are yet to taste defeat to Chippenham on their own patch.

Borough have won five of the six visits from Chippenham, with one draw. That includes last season – where goals from Sam Beard, Moussa Diarra and Yahaya Bamba secured the Sports a 3-0 home win in the final home game of the campaign.