The Milton Road faithful witnessed their first goalless draw of the season as neither of these two mid-table sides possessed the class to breach two dominant defences on a bitterly cold afternoon.

City made one change from the team narrowly defeated at Nuneaton on New Year’s Day, Academy player Steve Shipley making his first team debut at right back, allowing Lee Pluck to revert to the centre of defence with Lee Summerscales dropping to the bench.

Louis Riddle gets above Daren Pearce

Both sides had opportunities to gain an early advantage. With two minutes gone Ollie Rowland swung in a left wing cross which was met first time by Danny Simmonds, forcing a sharp save from Martin Davies, the alert Matt Langston completing the clearance at the expense of a corner.

As City countered, Carl Williams, who had made a promising debut at Nuneaton showed good close control to work the space for a right wing cross which Simon Martin met with a superb glancing header, forcing Lee Hook into an excellent stretching save low to his right, the former Wolves ‘keeper recovering sufficiently to block Louis Riddle’s follow-up from point blank range.

The game then settled down into a keenly contested midfield battle with genuine openings at a premium. After a decent spell of possession Lewis Baillie crossed from the left for Rob Miller but the former Bedford midfielder’s early strike was wide of the target.

Martin led the City line well, his hold-up play against some robust defending was impressive. Having collected a low pass from Rob Nightingale wide on the left he turned Darren Baker before being hauled down by the Boro’ full-back, this was one offence to many for Mr Brockwell who brandished the first yellow card of the afternoon. He was soon reaching for his pocket again as Danny Simmonds climbed all over Martin and then presumably exchanged words with the Northampton official to earn a caution.

More good work down the left saw Baillie play the ball into Martin who hit a swinging cross towards the far post, Williams did well to get his head to it but could only direct his effort over the bar.

Danny Bloomfield heads goalwards

As the half drew to a close City came within a whisker of snatching the lead. Neat interplay between Baillie and Riddle allowed the former Stevenage winger to hit a deep cross which picked out Danny Bloomfield who had peeled off the shoulder of the last defender. Rising superbly the Lilywhites top scorer directed his header back across goal and with Hook stranded Martin slid in at the far post but was inches away from diverting the ball into the net.

City were the first to threaten in the second period. Collecting a pass from Shipley, who was having an assured debut, wide on the right, Martin angled a low centre into the near post where Bloomfield was quick to react but fired wide.

As play switched to the other end City stifled another Boro’ attack and looked to play the ball out of defence. As Baillie drove forward he was crudely felled by a wild kick from Stephen Dell which left the former Heybridge Swifts defender requiring treatment, Dell arguably fortunate to only see yellow.

Eastbourne then spurned a good chance to go ahead, Hook’s long clearance found its way to Simmonds through the inside left channel. The former Hastings striker was quick to spot Daren Pearce in space on the right of the area but with Martin Davies exposed the long serving midfielder failed to find the target.

From a throw in wide on their left the visitors worked the ball across the park, playing in Pearce behind Baillie, but from the edge of the area Pearce again fired tamely across goal when well placed.

In what appeared to be an attempt to consolidate, visiting boss Garry Wilson introduced Stewart Holmes at the expense of Andy Ducille. Gary Roberts countered this with two changes of his own. Jamie Godbold, unavailable through illness on New Year’s Day came on for Williams, to be followed a couple of minutes later by Lee Summerscales who replaced the injured Lewis Baillie.

Lewis Baillie's progress is stopped by Eastbourne's Andy Ducille

With City reorganising at the back Pearce was narrowly off target as he rose highest to meet a Dell free kick driven in from the right. The Lilywhites countered through the tireless Rob Miller who intelligently played in Bloomfield behind the Eastbourne back line but on a frustrating afternoon for the City marksman he was only able to shoot straight at Hook.

As the game entered its final ten minutes Stewart Holmes raced into vast space behind Summerscales but choosing to strike the ball early he allowed Martin Davies to parry his shot over the bar for a corner. The place kick was only cleared as far as Steve Yates who crossed to the far post where Stuart Playford flashed a header across the face of goal.

As Eastbourne looked to snatch all three points Simmonds connected with a Pearce corner to send a rising drive over the bar. There was still time for one last City attack as Godbold, who injected some much needed drive after his introduction, won the ball wide on the left and played in Miller whose shot was deflected behind for a corner. Miller himself took the place kick which Martin met at the near post, heading narrowly over. There was to be no further goalmouth incident however and the game petered out into a draw.

This was a tough examination for City so soon after the energy sapping performance at Nuneaton and although the Lilywhites failed to show the same creativity in the attacking third that was so evident on New Year’s Day, the defence was rock solid. Steve Shipley will be very pleased with his debut and Matt Langston continues to impress, his partnership with Lee Pluck giving City the kind of stability essential for success this season, in the early months of the campaign this is the kind of game the Lilywhites would have allowed to slip away from them.