Paul Armstrong has fond memories of playing Chester.

The Eastbourne Borough skipper hopes to return from injury to play a key role in tomorrow’s clash with the Cheshire side at Priory Lane.

Ten years ago Armstrong enjoyed one of the best nights of his career when he scored his first senior goal for Albion in a televised 1-1 draw with Chester.

Armstrong, then 20, was still making his way in the professional game when the Seagulls headed to the North West for what turned out to be Brian Horton’s last game in charge.

They trailed 1-0 going into injury-time when Jamie Moralee was pushed over in the penalty area.

With regular penalty-taker Jeff Minton having gone off injured, Armstrong stepped forward and calmly slotted home to salvage a point.

He recalled: “Jeff Minton went off injured and I saw a chance, especially with it being on TV and I knew I had loads of family watching back in Ireland.

“If one of the more senior players had wanted to take it I would have stepped aside but no one else did and I thought, ‘Why not?’.

“I scored another goal a week later (against Scarborough). I signed a new contract either just before or just after the Chester game and I also got into the Irish under-21 side around that time. It was probably the best spell of my career.”

Since then Armstrong’s career has taken him to Scotland with Airdrie and back south to Crawley Town before linking up with Borough in 2006.

As captain, he was a key figure as Borough defied the odds to stay up in their first season in Blue Square premier last year, when they also reached the Sussex Senior Cup final.

The part-timers are up against it to repeat last year’s heroics but Armstrong has seen enough signs to suggest they will be okay, especially at Kidderminster last Saturday.

Borough went into the game having dropped points by conceding goals in injury time in their previous two games but they showed plenty of character to run out 2-0 winners.

Armstrong, who missed the game due to a bruised hip, said: “I have always said it is not always brilliant football that gets you results in the Conference premier.

“If you have eight men working harder than their eight men and that character comes through, it will get more results than not during the course of the season.”

Armstrong also missed Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat away to Stevenage but is keen to return against his old foes.

He said: “I had a small fitness test before the game at Kidderminster but I was being way too optimistic. It was far too painful.

“I thought I would give Tuesday a miss and give myself a few more days to get fit and it is feeling a lot better. Hopefully I’ll be fit.”

Armstrong is not the only player Eastbourne are sweating on ahead of the game against a Chester side who began the season on minus 25 points following problems after entering administration during the summer.

Neil Jenkins was due to train last night after missing four games due to a hamstring injury but he remains a doubt while Andy Atkin (dead leg), Ben Austin (knee) and Matt Crabb (calf) are also undergoing treatment ahead of the game.

Eastbourne Borough (from): Jordan, Knowles, Austin, Pullan, Elphick, Baker, Jenkins, N.Crabb, Armstrong, Weatherstone, Brown, M.Crabb, Atkin, Taylor, Enver-Marum, Smith, Johnson, Smart.

Chester (from): Danby, Lea, Lynch, Kelly, Ryan, Wilkinson, Barry, Roberts, Ashton, Blundell, Chadwick, Ellams, Kay, Murphy, Meynell, Rule.