Ben Austin insists Eastbourne Borough should be aiming to emulate the success of Histon rather than just settling for survival in their debut season in Blue Square premier.

Austin scored his first goal for more than three years to earn Borough a point in a 1-1 draw against a Histon side who have surprised everyone since winning promotion to non-league’s top flight.

Part-time outfits historically struggle in a division dominated by professional clubs but Histon bucked that trend last season by finishing just below the play-offs and are currently sixth this time around thanks to Jack Midson’s second-half equaliser at Priory Lane.

Borough themselves could have climbed to the heady heights of seventh if they had held on to the lead Austin gave them just before half-time and the right-back believes they should not even be considering a relegation battle.

Austin said: “It was two points dropped in my opinion. They might argue that a draw was a fair result but we should have been more than 1-0 up at half-time and were in control until we gave them a sloppy goal.

“For two thirds of the game we were on top but the thing about this league is that you have got to take your chances because you know the other team are going to come back at you.

“A draw is not a bad result because they are a good side who have proved themselves already in this division but there is no reason why we can’t emulate what they have achieved.

“This year we have set the target of staying up as we are going into the unknown but from what I have seen so far I would like to think we can finish in mid-table.

“We have already played a lot of big teams but have competed well in every game and if we can cut out the little bit of naivety which is costing us then we’ll be fine.”

The naivety Austin was referring to came in the 58th minute when Midson rose unchallenged in the area to head home Danny Wright’s corner from the right.

Up until then Borough had bossed the game but they struggled to respond after conceding such a soft equaliser and Histon looked the more likely winners towards the end.

That was in stark contrast to the first half when the visitors barely got a look-in as Borough shook off their tendency to begin games slowly.

Mo Harkin, recalled to the starting line-up for the first time in five games, had three sights of goal inside the first ten minutes and although none of them was easy he perhaps should have made one count.

His first effort was comfortably saved by Danny Naisbitt who then tipped over a fierce drive before the former Crawley winger horribly sliced a shot wide.

Histon were visibly rocked by Borough’s impressive start and that perhaps explains why Wright blatantly shoved Tait in the back inside the area but unfortunately referee Rob Whitton somehow missed the incident.

It looked like Borough would go in at the break with nothing to show for their dominance until Austin timed his run to perfection to glance home Jenkins’ corner in the 44th minute.

It was only his 12th goal in 313 games for Borough and the first time he had found the net since the play-off semi-final against Histon’s neighbours Cambridge City in May 2005.

He did his best to ensure it was the winner too with a remarkable block from Damian Reeves when a goal looked certain but Midson grabbed the equaliser from the resulting corner.

Boss Garry Wilson said: “I was chuffed with our first half performance and if we had gone in 2-0 up that would have given us a bit of a cushion.

“We told them at half-time to expect Histon to come back at us and we have got to learn how to deal with it when we concede goals because we lost our way after they equalised.”

Borough: Hook, Armstrong, Austin, Baker, Nathan Crabb (Illugason, 76), Harkin (Harding, 74), Jenkins, Lovett, Pullan, Tait (Budd, 87), Smart. Sub not used: Matt Crabb, Winterton.

Booked: Jenkins.

Histon: Naisbitt, Gwillim, Langston, Oyebanjo (Pope, 75), Murray, Ada, Knight-Percival, Simpson, Midson, Wright (Okay, 86), Reeves. Subs not used: Key, Kennedy, Andrews.

Booked: Ada