Three games to save the season: Eastbourne Borough are fighting so well but have hard work ahead

Chippenham Town visit the Lane tomorrow (Saturday) and then the Sports head to Weston-super-Mare on Tuesday night before their final game at Braintree on Saturday week.

Borough's long haul to Gloucester, where Truro are completing their fixtures, produced no goals and only a few real chances - almost all of them falling to Adam Murray's men. On 20 minutes David Sesay's drive was deflected narrowly over the bar by Matt Green, and then just before half-time Yahya Baba scuffed a shot just wide from a central position.

Borough beat Weymouth – the match in pictures by Lydia and Nick Redman.

Straight after the break Green was inches away from converting Bamba's low centre, before Sports keeper Harrison Foulkes was called on for an excellent stop from a Truro corner. Truro's only other real chance arrived in the final ten minutes, defender Dan Quick clearing a City effort off the line. But the stalemate stayed unbroken - and the fate of the Sports remains in the balance.

The variables are, well, too variable. In the end it will come down to simple statistics: how many wins, draws and points for achieving the safety of that fifth-from-bottom place.

In a division of 24 clubs, only two are – as the Herald goes to print – definitely down, and the remaining two relegation places are open, like the bony beckoning finger of the Wicked Witch, to as many as eight other clubs. Working downwards: Weymouth, Welling, Hemel Hempstead, Torquay, Truro, Eastbourne Borough, Dartford, Taunton.

Entering this – penultimate – weekend, Dartford look doomed. With just two games left, one of them at champions-elect Yeovil Town, they will probably reach no more than 46 points. Borough can surely beat that total, with nine points still available from Saturday’s home game with Chippenham, followed by trips to Weston-super-Mare and Braintree Town.

But the Sports must still finish above one other opposing club. Taunton Town have it in their own hands, but as this final gruelling fortnight takes its toll, will the Somerset club run out of legs? The same question applies to Truro City – Borough’s opponents on Wednesday – who will by Saturday week have completed seven games in twelve days.

At a glance, that final relegation place appears to lie between those three – Taunton, Truro and the Sports. Torquay United, astonishingly, are not mathematically safe, thanks to their ten-point penalty for calling in the administrators, but let’s realistically grant them a free pass. Any other candidates?

Weymouth – dramatically defeated by Eastbourne last weekend – are on 51 points, the same as Welling United. If those two clubs can muster just one more victory apiece, they will be out of danger, and beyond Borough’s reach.

The final improbable candidates for the dubious relegation honours are Hemel Hempstead Town. Like kids slithering down a muddy bank, the Tudors have long since lost their footing in National South. Just two games left – against play-off chasing Slough Town and, on the final day, at Taunton Town in an absolute six-pointer – and two defeats would leave Hemel absolutely knee-deep in relegation quicksand.

Go on, someone – feed these fixtures into one of your super-computers and mince them thoroughly. The Sports to stay up by a point? This reporter will be taking his dog-eared old notebook to Borough’s final game, a week on Saturday…

But never mind the software. The 90 minutes at Braintree Town will not come down to statistics. The points will be won, or lost, pass by pass, shot by shot, tackle by tackle. Thankfully, sport is about human effort and heroism, and even human failings. A thirty-yard strike, an open goal missed, a penalty saved. All live and unscripted. Adam Murray’s men are, to quote the Bard, armed and well prepared. Bring it on…