Stevenage 1 Eastbourne Borough 3.

Eastbourne Borough’s love affair with Broadhall Way continued last night as they recorded their second historic result at Stevenage Borough’s ground in the space of three months.

Borough secured promotion to Blue Square premier with victory over Hampton and Richmond in May and proved they are well equipped to survive in non-league’s top flight with a deserved win against Stevenage.

In stark contrast to their opening day defeat to Rushden and Diamonds when Borough were guilty of wasteful finishing they needed just three chances to complete their first ever victory against Conference premier opposition.

It was a thoroughly professional job by the part-timers as early goals from Pat Harding and Andy Atkin set them on their way before Atkin ensured Andy Drury’s fine free-kick would be a mere consolation with his second soon after the interval.

Borough boss Garry Wilson said: “This is proving a good ground for us. It is nice to get off the mark because it will give us a lot of confidence that we can compete at this level.

“We would probably have taken a point before the game because this is a difficult place to come. Not many teams will come here and get any points off Stevenage.

“We have played two of the big clubs now and matched them so it shows we are not out of our depth and, hopefully, we can build on that.”

Stevenage were still smarting from a 5-0 hammering at Wrexham on the opening day and looked determined to make amends in front of their home fans as they put Borough under pressure in the opening stages.

The visitors had hardly managed to touch the ball let alone build an attack so it came completely out of the blue when they took the lead in the 12th minute.

Nothing appeared on when Ben Austin took a quick throw-in to Pat Harding 25 yards out but the former Hassocks striker surprised everyone, not least former Crawley keeper Ashley Bayes in the Stevenage goal, when he sent a low shot skimming inside the right-hand post.

That sparked wild celebrations on the Borough bench – not to mention the handful of noisy fans behind the away goal – and they had only just died down when they doubled their lead two minutes later.

Ben Austin did what he is best at by pushing forward to support in attack and managed to get behind his opposing full-back to deliver a low cross which set up Atkin for a simple finish from eight yards.

A moment of magic from former Lewes midfielder Drury got Stevenage back into the match just before the break.

Paul Armstrong was harshly adjudged to have brought down Scott Laird on the left-hand corner of the area and Drury curled a perfect free-kick in off the crossbar past a flat-footed Lee Hook.

A nervous second half looked in store but Atkin settled any butterflies within ten minutes of the restart as he took advantage of some more lax defending.

An innocuous looking high ball fell to an unmarked Atkin in the area and although he failed to connect with his first attempt he still had enough time to blast home from close range at the second attempt.

Unfortunately a large number of supporters missed the historic win after getting stuck in traffic on the way to the game and being forced to turn around.

Stevenage: Bayes, Laird, Anaclet, Albrighton (Willock, 67), Thomas, Mills, Christie (McMahon, 55), Boylan, Drury (Oliver, 86) , Bostwick, Henry. Subs not used: Wilson, Jordan. Eastbourne: Hook 6, Austin 7, Jenkins 7, Baker 8, Pullan 8, Harding 7, Armstrong 8, Smart 6, Harkin 6 (Lovett, 69), Atkin 8 (Sigere, 88), Tait 6 (Wormull, 80). Subs not used: Winterton, N Crabb. Bookings: Pullan, Smart