Andrew Bennett reports:

It has been this way for weeks now. Cold, desolate, miserable, almost unbearable, no prospect of getting anywhere, you just want to stay inside, shut the world out and forget about what is going on out there.

But enough about United's season so far. What about this weather, eh? A few days ago the prospect of today's game with Eastbourne being on looked about as likely as Portsmouth paying their wages on time, but a slight thaw and sterling work by Ian Darler and his team created a playing surface that looked thoroughly playable.

The fifteen-day gap since United's last match at Stevenage was one less than the enforced winter break they endured last season between 1st and 17th February, when games at Kidderminster and at home to Mansfield were postponed, but one suspects that after three consecutive defeats over the Christmas period, many U's fans were quite happy to stay in the warm on Saturdays and enjoy Jeff Stelling and his mates' pontifications on the box, or just avoid football altogether for a change, and follow the Machiavellian machinations over the A14 with a certain degree of déjà vu…

The opposition, at least, seemed reasonably inviting in that Eastbourne were without a win in the league since they beat Hayes & Yeading 3-1 on 22nd September, albeit they had defeated the mighty Welling in the FA Trophy on 12th December, yielding a run of sixteen BSP games without a win. Borough brought with them a travelling army of 14 doughty supporters, bless their chunky reinforced nylon socks, but crowd numbers were boosted by a South Stand packed with local youth teams.

With the departure of Anthony Tonkin, a quality left-back who deserves his place in Abbey history alongside the likes of Kimble, Murray, Granville and Mbome (only joking), and the suspensions of Brian Saah and Wayne Hatswell, Martin Ling was forced into fielding an untried back four of Rory McAuley, Josh Coulson, and two debutants in towering 6'5" CRC captain, 18-year-old Blaine Hudson, and new signing, Aiden Witting Palmer, whose history is more colourful than a Barry Fry team talk.

Fit-again Paul Carden replaced Jai Reason to accompany Sam Ives in central midfield, while Courtney Pitt was dropped in favour of Andy Parkinson, with Robbie Willmott switching to the left wing. With the usual front pairing of Chris Holroyd and Danny Crow, Ling named a cautious bench which omitted the exciting talents of Adam Marriott and Jordan Patrick, who 'enjoyed' another football-free Saturday with the postponement of CRC's game at Harwich. Lee Phillips, on the mend, was not quite ready but made a welcome appearance in the warm-up.

The visitors' attack was spearheaded by ex-U Liam Enver-Marum, who has sprouted a second surname since leaving the Abbey three years ago, while the legendary Danny Brown was back from suspension to lurk menacingly on their bench.

It was a damp, chilly day, but seemed positively sub-tropical after the recent Arctic freeze, and the only United player to sport gloves was Danny Crow, looking rather odd when matched with a short-sleeved shirt. Well a man's got to stay moisturised somehow. The playing surface was a pleasing shade of green with no puddles in sight, although there was still some residual snow shovelled against the foot of the South Stand.

The match got off to a dramatic start with a booking for new boy Palmer within 58 seconds for an over-enthusiastic but never malicious tackle which took Matt Crabb's legs away in the centre circle. He was understandably anxious to impress, and it was to his credit that he did not let such an early setback affect his performance, which grew in assurance as the afternoon wore on.

Early exchanges were inconclusive, Coulson having a far-post header from a Willmott free-kick blocked on 8, and Eastbourne's first corner three minutes later was prevented from breaking the deadlock by a melee of players from both sides. United broke back but Willmott blasted an ambitious 25-yarder high and wide, while Hudson got in the way of a Crabb shot on the quarter hour, then Neil Jenkins blazed over for the visitors.

So far, so forgettable, as if both teams were shaking off the rust which had formed beneath the last fortnight's ice, although United's youthful back line looked pleasingly cool, calm and collected, all of them comfortable on the ball. The midfield was rather less effective, pinging too many hopeful high balls towards the less-than-gigantic strikers, and even when supplemented by the centre-backs at set pieces, United were dominated aerially by the visitors for 90 minutes.

On 22 a half-chance fell to Crow in the box with keeper Danny Knowles off his line, but his half-volley never had the height to beat the Borough custodian, and three minutes the lively Parkinson burst through and tried a better chip that Knowles did well to gather from above his head.

A good run and cross from Crow on 28 almost found Parkinson galloping in at the far post, Knowles intercepting, then Joe Benjamin hammered a wild shot in the general direction of the curry house over the road. Crow was finding some nice through balls and Palmer was proving to be an adept crosser on the overlap, but the whole was less than the sum of the parts for the U's whose disjointed, bitty game was foundering on the visitors' steadfast defence.

It was a quiet day for the goalkeepers, with Eastbourne happy to sit it out for the point, although Ives was presented with a decent chance from a half-clearance on 39 which he lashed disappointingly wide. But United at last began to build a head of steam as half-time approached.

On 44 Parkinson latched onto a Willmott cross that was not dealt with by the visitors on the left-hand byline, chipped across to Crow at the far post, he headed it back across goal, Knowles pawed it out to Ives, and with the goal at his mercy six yards out he opted for placement when a good old-fashioned welly might have been better, and his shot was scrambled off the line by a combination of the keeper and Gary Elphick. The ensuing corner ran to McAuley and his low shot was arrowing into the net at the near post until hacked off the line by Ben Austin.

Jamie Taylor then picked up the visitors' only booking of the day for fouling Carden, but the half-time whistle curtailed United's efforts to break the deadlock at just the right time for under-pressure Borough. Not a great first half, but its finale had at least engendered some hope for act two.

Benjamin had damaged his hamstring in the last minute of the first half, and he was replaced by Danny Brown at the restart. An early scurrying run through the defence from Willmott forced a panicky clearance from Knowles, but with the goal open and vulnerable, Parkinson could not find the space to get a shot in from thirty yards and was eventually crowded out.

Brown then showed why he had been introduced with a cool interception and chest back to the keeper from Willmott's cross, but on 51 a quick throw from Crow sent Holroyd sprinting clear down the right channel; his shot, however, flew into the side netting with Willmott well placed in the middle. Willmott kept up the pressure with a teasing, bouncing cross into the area which was shanked over his own bar by Paul Armstrong, but United got no change from corners all afternoon.

And on 55 United were made to regret their profligacy. Coulson conceded a corner, and from the flag-kick Marc Pullan rose to flick it on to the unmarked Taylor at the far post, who nodded comfortably past Danny Potter. Classic sucker punch: 1-0.

The shellshocked U's tried to respond, Palmer gaining a corner with another teasing cross, and when he repeated the trick on 59 the ball ran to Carden galloping in on the edge of the box, but he blasted disappointingly over. McAuley, trying to make something happen, slalomed forward on 61 and finding no-one on the left wing to take a pass, turned inside and had a shot deflected wide for a corner. A second flag-kick caused a kerfuffle in the box which drew a few claims for handball, but it was far from clear cut.

On 63 the fading Parkinson was withdrawn in favour of Pitt, with Willmott switching to the right, although the U's sub spent a fair amount of time in the centre behind the strikers initially. Another ball pinged around the Eastbourne box drew half-hearted cries for a penalty for hands, but on 69 the visitors threatened to break away when Hudson was exposed by a poor pass from Pitt, and the young debutant was forced to bring down Simon Johnson at the expense of a yellow card. That was bookings for both new boys.

Two minutes later Willmott found Pitt arriving from deep down the middle and the baggy-shorted wing wizard curled a decent shot just wide, while a minute later a good interchange between Pitt and Palmer saw the latter drift a teasing cross into the middle, but with Willmott and Crow queuing up for a free shot, Holroyd jumped in front of them and headed over on the stretch; a shout from his colleagues to leave it would have left them with a simple shooting chance. On such moments do matches hinge.

With Eastbourne hanging on stoutly, United made two changes with fifteen minutes to go, Mark Beesley and Jai Reason replacing Crow and Ives, and within a couple of minutes a quickly taken free-kick had sent Holroyd haring down the right channel, but with Beesley waiting for the cross in the middle, Holroyd summed up his afternoon with a horribly overhit effort that sailed well over his colleague's head.

On 82 United tried to pass their way through the middle and Beesley set up Holroyd for a shot from the edge of the box, but he scooped it over, and from there on in the hosts just seemed to run out of ideas, lumping it forward in more hope than expectation, with skipper Carden conspicuous by his lack of inspiration. But they failed as a team as Eastbourne hung on to their three points with their keeper barely employed except to collect the occasional cross.

Two late timewasting subs saw Nathan (brother of Matt) Crabb and Andy Atkin replace Taylor and Enver-Marum, who seemed to be competing in some sort of slow-invisible-bicycle race as they meandered off, but in truth the four added minutes could have been extended to forty and directionless, inspirationless United would not have troubled Knowles. Eastbourne scarcely deserved the three points, but they had scored and United had not. Fin.

United are at a crossroads now. They can take encouragement from the growing reputations of their younger players, but many of the older ones are simply not delivering, and several of those must be aware that their contracts are up at the end of the season and will in all probability not be renewed as Ling builds his own squad. Which you might hope would actually make them play well with a view to earning a new contract either at the Abbey or elsewhere, but hey, they are footballers.

It will take a miracle for this flaky squad to challenge for a playoff place, and perhaps they should be looking behind them first as they slip to fourteenth place in the table, but Ling must not allow this season to just wither on the vine in the middle of January. The supporters expect - and deserve - more. Meanwhile, don't hold out too many hopes for a big crowd for the FA Trophy rematch on Tuesday; I have a feeling that a number of fans' new-found liking for home comforts on a match day will assert itself again…

Statto Corner

United's run of four consecutive defeats is their worst since they lost six in a row between Boxing Day, 2006 and 23rd January, 2007, going down to Rushden (twice), Burton, Kidderminster, Stafford and Stevenage.

Today saw United's first ever loss to Eastbourne. The clubs first met only last season, win the U's winning 3-0 in Sussex (scorers Lee McEvilly, Ben Farrell and a debut goal for Chris Holroyd), and 2-1 at the Abbey (Lee Phillips and Holroyd again). The sides fought out a 2-2 draw in Eastbourne last month.

Aiden Palmer is the second player with that surname to play first team football for the U's. The first, Lee, was also a left-back, signing from Gillingham in 1995 and making his debut in a 2-2 draw at Hereford on 19th August. In all he made 34 starts for United, plus one game as sub, and scored one goal, a spectacular strike in a 3-1 home win over Colchester, and he bowed out in a 2-1 win at Brighton on 12th October 1996. He never played in the Football League again, going back to Kent to play for Dover, Sittingbourne and Folkestone Invicta.

Steve Palmer turned out for United's reserves while at Cambridge University in the 1980s, but never gained a pro contract, although he went on to enjoy a fine full-time career at Ipswich Town and Watford. Former Hull City goalkeeper Robert Palmer (no, not the elegant rock star) played briefly for the reserves in 1983.

The only Hudson to play for the U's first team before Blaine today was Keith, who scored once in Abbey United's United Counties League campaign in the 1948-49 season. Former Stoke City and Chelsea legend Alan Hudson's son Billy turned out for the U's as a trialist in a friendly at Hornchurch in August 1996 after spells at Tottenham, Crewe and Crawley, but he failed to make an impression or carve out a footballing career like that of his father.

Aiden Palmer is the ninth player to be allocated squad number 3 for the U's since they were introduced in 1999. Previous incumbents were Ian Ashbee, Fred Murray, Abdou El Kholti, David Chick, Matt Bloomer, Aidan Collins, Stephen Reed and of course Anthony Tonkin.

Blaine Hudson is the fifteenth number 28 in the same time period. How many of these do you remember? Lee Collins, Scott Oakes, Adam Butterworth, John Turner, Jonathan Heathcote, Brian Dutton, Tom Beech, Richard Hodgson, Martin Carruthers, Ritchie Hanlon, Ben Sedgemore, Darryl Knights, Lee McEvilly, Danny Crow…

Player Ratings

Potter 6. Had little to do except pick the ball out of the net.
McAuley 7. Confirmed his potential with a controlled performance at right-back.
Palmer 8. Excellent debut, recovering from an early booking to improve as the game went on; not tested much defensively, but incisive breaking forward and United's best crosser of the ball by far.
Coulson 7. Josh rose to the occasion of nursing a younger centre-back partner with a sound, mature display.
Hudson 7. CRC's captain demonstrated why he is so highly rated with a standard of play which belied his tender years, defending strongly, doing the simple things well and finding his passing range as the game went on.
Parkinson 6. Had a fairly decent first half, getting forward well, but faded in the second. As a winger he seems unable to beat his opponent with the ball at his feet by way of either skill or pace.
Carden 5. An inexperienced line-up looked to its skipper for inspiration, but found none; Cards signally failed to drive his team on, dictate the play or simply look like a leader. Disappointing.
Ives 6. Not his greatest game, but contributed energetically as best he could in an underperforming midfield.
Willmott 5. Robbie does not function best out on the left, but he fared little better on the right later on, although he did put in some good back-tracking on occasion.
Crow 6. Produced the occasional excellent precision pass, but overall posed little threat to the Eastbourne defence, not that his supply line was exactly impressive.
Holroyd 5. Left his shooting boots at home.
Pitt 6. Had a couple of nice moments after he came on, but was given a crossing lesson by Palmer, with whom he linked well down the left.
Beesley 5. Willing runner but made little impression.
Reason 5. Unable to lift a moribund creative hub.

Match Summary

Encouraging performances from two debutants were the only positives United could take from a mediocre, directionless display by a team sadly lacking in creativity or belief. Their more experienced players need to look to their laurels because at the moment CRC appear to be the best team playing at the Abbey this season.

Man of the Match

Aiden Palmer. Exciting, quick attacking full-back who will soon get us asking 'Anthony who?' if he builds on this fine debut effort.

Ref Watch

Fletcher 7. Didn't waste time in booking Palmer, but thereafter kept control calmly and reasonably unobtrusively.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

"The game wasn't very good." (Joss Hart)

Soundtrack of the Day

The Clientele "I Wonder Who We Are"