Boss Paul Doswell sums up Hawks' truly bizarre clash as opponents Eastbourne Borough reduced to eight-men

The visiting Sports finished the fixture with just eight-men after having three players shown red cards, eventually going down 3-0 at Westleigh Park.

James Vaughan was the first of the Eastbourne trio dismissed by referee Jack Packman after his lunge on James Roberts on 35 minutes.

Both QPR loanee Trent Mahorn and Chris Whelpdale received their marching orders having picked up two yellow cards apiece in the space of eight second-half minutes to leave Danny Bloor's side facing the final 24 minutes and time added on with just eight players on the field.

Yet, for a period at least, it appeared as though Borough could have achieved the unthinkable and see things out without conceding - that was until Jake McCarthy's stunning 81st-minute volley which made the breakthrough. Strike ace Manny Duku then took his scoring tally for the club to seven goals in 14 appearances to wrap things up.

And Hawks boss Doswell was just relieved his troops came through in the end - now seeing his seventh-placed side open up a three-point cushion in the play-off spots - in a truly bizarre encounter.

‘I've never had that, 11 v 8. I think I'd have to watch the video back to assess all three sending-offs,’ revealed Doswell.

‘From our perspective, when you're 11 v 10, that's never easy, when you're 11 v 9 they sit in even more.

‘What I thought we did well, we kept the width, we kept moving the ball quickly - when teams go down in numbers like they did - the way eventually crack them open was to keep going wide and wide.

‘That game was the strangest game I've ever seen, perhaps that's what we needed (something special to get breakthrough), we were getting up to double figures in terms of chances.

‘It took a special moment (to get the breakthrough). In fairness to them, what an unbelievable rearguard performance to that point.

‘Eastbourne had nowhere to go. It was a shame because the game was coming into being a fantastic game - you can see why they are where they are - but we've just got to be happy for us.

‘It's disappointing for them but it was a massive game - we were disappointed we didn't get the three points at Bath - but today has made up for that.’