Eastbourne Borough 1 Forest Green 0.

Boss Garry Wilson admitted he had to pinch himself a little after seeing Eastbourne Borough climb to eighth position in the Blue Square premier.

Borough’s dream start to life in non-league’s top flight continued as a solitary Nathan Crabb goal in the second half clinched a third successive 1-0 win.

Wilson side were slightly fortunate in their previous outings against Grays and Altrincham but they thoroughly deserved to take maximum points against a Forest Green side who arrived at Priory Lane sitting proudly on top of the table.

Wilson said: “Only time will tell if we can keep it going but we are enjoying ourselves at the moment.

“We have adopted an attitude this season that we won’t get too excited when we win or too down if we lose but we are obviously delighted with the start we have made.

“I thought it was our best home performance of the season, especially in the second half when we played some really nice football at times.

“Our defending was magnificent again, not just the back four but right through the team because they all worked so hard. It is hard to keep clean sheets in this division so to keep three in a row is something to be proud of.”

With Jean-Michel Sigere failing a fitness test on his hamstring injury it meant Borough fielded their fourth different strike partnership in seven games as Nathan Crabb was chosen to play alongside Allan Tait.

It was Crabb’s first start of the season and he was joined in the side by brother Matt who replaced Pat Harding on the left wing after returning from a one-game ban.

The Borough strikers were forced to feed off scraps in the first half though against a Rovers defence which had conceded just one goal in their previous four games to take them to the top of the table.

The visitors were also finding the blustery conditions difficult to contend with and although they showed more threat going forward the closest they came to scoring was when Matt Crabb comfortably headed a chip from Adriano Rigoglioso off the line following a scramble in the Borough area.

Nathan Crabb was involved in Borough’s two most promising moments of a poor quality first half and both resulted from mistakes by the visitors.

Goalkeeper Ryan Robinson had to race out of his area to clear from the onrushing Crabb after John Hardiker had allowed a long ball to bounce over his head and then Tait sent Crabb clear when Rovers conceded possession tamely in midfield but the striker fired over under pressure.

The heavens opened during the interval making playing conditions even more difficult Borough weathered an initial storm in the first five minutes after the restart and then stunned the visitors by taking the lead in the 64th minute.

Darren Jones made an important header to cut out a Jay Lovett cross from the right with Tait lurking dangerously at the far post but Rovers were made to pay from the resulting corner as Nathan Crabb was left unmarked at the far post to head home Neil Jenkins’ hanging cross.

In contrast to Saturday when Borough were forced back by Altrincham after taking the lead they started to take control of the game.

On-loan Reading striker Viktor Illugason was brought on with 19 minutes to go and almost made an instant impact when a long-range strike from way out on the right wing clipped the top of the bar.

Forest Green should have grabbed an equaliser in injury time when Kaid Mohamed skipped past two defenders into the area only to blaze wastefully over and then right at the death the same player crashed a shot against the bar.

Eastbourne: Hook 7, Austin 8, Jenkins 8, Baker 8, Pullan 8, Smart 8, Armstrong 8, Lovett 7, M Crabb 8 (Harding, 64), Tait 8, N Crabb 7 (Illuagason, 71). Subs not used: Winterton, Budd, Harkin.

Booked: Smart, Jenkins.

Forest Green: Robinson, Stonehouse, Thomas (Preece, 81), Jones, Hardiker, Lawless, Mohamed, Platt (Afful, 60), Fowler, Mangan, Rigoglioso (Smith, 60). Subs not used: Molyneaux, Burton.

Booked: Lawless, Rigoglioso, Hardiker.

Referee: Gary Jerden (Essex).

Attendance: 1,065.

Man-of-the-match: Allan Tait.