AOB: Cambridge City:1 Eastbourne Borough:1

I’m surely not the only person who has occasionally looked back at last season and thought, what if. What if Robbie Simpson hadn’t discovered how to score goals, what if JQ hadn’t stumbled upon a formation that worked for us, what if our rivals hadn’t been quite so hopeless?

I suppose it’s all fairly irrelevant now seeing as we didn’t go down and it seems unlikely we’ll be involved in a relegation scrap this time around, but I don’t think it hurts to remember what an absolute disaster it would have been if we had been relegated. Certainly puts our current troubles (if indeed a couple of unimpressive draws can be called troubles) into perspective.

The what ifs were on my mind a fair bit as I trooped down to Milton Road last night to watch City in action against Conference South leaders Eastbourne Borough. It was the first time I’d been to see a proper (ie not our annual pre-season friendly) game at Milton Road for about six years, and while I know that in reality both teams are less than 30 places below us in the grand scheme of things, everything about the proceedings screamed proper non-league. City’s sponsor-less kit for one thing, which looked like the kind of thing one might see on Coldhams Common on a Sunday morning.

There was also the prevalence of fattys. At least in our league most of the players look vaguely like professional athletes, whereas the Eastbourne side was packed with blokes who probably enjoy the odd pastry-based delicacy.

City looked considerably lighter than their visitors, with the exception of good old Michael Gash. Gashy has of course been transformed from the lumbering oaf that turned out for us last season into a lethal goal machine, having already registered nine strikes this season. Goal ten arrived in the eighth minute, when the Eastbourne defence failed to deal with a routine hoof forward from Lee Chaffey. The striker nipped and toe poked a lob over the advancing Lee Hook.

Gash’s all round game seems to have improved no end too, and he was the focal point for pretty much all of City’s attacks, using his bear-like strength (although obviously being a human, he's not actually a bear) and, ahem, ample arse to hold the ball up and feed his smaller, nippier colleagues, Lee Roache and ex-U Ash Fuller. The Lilywhites were a lot more direct than I expected, a tactic probably necessitated by their current injury crisis. Playing an odd 5-2-3 cum 3-4-3 formation, they had much the better of the opening exchanges, making light of their relatively poor league position.

However, once Eastbourne got going it was easy to see why they are top of the table, as they displayed some neat passing football, with left winger Matt Crabb looking particularly impressive. The dashing Shane Herbert was called into action to turn away two long range shots from one of the porkers, Matt Smart, while Andy Aitkin somehow missed two chances which, while I don’t like to overstate my football prowess, I probably would have scored.

So City were probably a tad fortunate to be ahead by half time, but they started the second half well, and Eastbourne could have been reduced to ten men when Neil Jenkins brought down Roache who was heading for goal. Although the striker had a clear sight of Hook, he was fairly wide and the presence of a covering player in the centre probably saved Jenkins’ bacon.

City boss Gary Roberts withdrew Fuller and Roache about midway through the second half, as City sat back to try and defend their lead. When will managers learn that this is almost always a bad move? Eastbourne made a triple substitution of their own, and Aitkin went close again with a powerful shot that rippled the side of the net.

When the equaliser came it was almost a carbon-copy of the goal. A long ball bounced in the area, sub Nathan Crabb turned and fired past the exposed Herbert with City’s defenders appealing in vain for offside. His celebration, a Lua Lua-esque flip, belonged at a higher level.

All in all it was a very enjoyable match, in which a draw was probably a fair result. Although I’m confident we could beat either side, they’d both be more than a match for the likes of Stafford and Farsley. As ever, Roberts is doing a terrific job at City, and their good-humoured, vocal supporters would be a much more welcome sight in the BSP than the Johnny-come-lately village idiots from across the A14. Football really isn’t fair, is it.