Eastbourne United

Ron Greenwood began his coaching career at Eastbourne United, and he went on to manage England at the 1982 World Cup. Gordon Jago, later of QPR and Millwall, also started here.

In 1894 the side was the 1st Sussex Royal Engineers, and over the next three decades it became the Old Comrades, then simply the Comrades. It took the name Eastbourne United in 1951. The ground moved too: The Oval in Princes Park has been home since 1946, after the Lynchmere Ground was lost to development.

The best years came in the 1960s, when the club won the Sussex Senior Cup six times between 1960 and 1969. Jack Mansell, who later coached Israel and Bahrain, played for the club in the 1960s and 70s. Before that, as Eastbourne Old Comrades, the club won the Sussex County League in 1955 and 1956. The Athenian League Division Two followed in 1967.

In 2003 the club merged with Shinewater Association, whose ground and floodlights had become a problem. Shinewater brought the 1997/98 Eastbourne Charity Cup with it, which the club counts among its twelve wins in that competition. Six years later United won Sussex County League Division One, and in 2013-14 they won Division Two and reached the FA Vase semi-finals in the same season.

The Oval holds 1,500, but only about 150 of those places are under cover, in three metal stands. A new 3G pitch and clubhouse were approved in 2024. A merger with Eastbourne Town, the club's rivals in the Eastbourne derby, was discussed in 1997 and came to nothing. United have not won the Sussex Senior Cup since 1969.