A late goal from Yemi Odubade kept Eastbourne Borough's play-off hopes alive.

Borough battled back from behind to earn a vital point against Bishop's Stortford at Priory Lane last night.

Borough went into the match knowing they needed five points from their last three games to be certain of finishing in the top five and now travel to Weston-super-Mare tomorrow needing at least a draw to set up a tense final day encounter with Carshalton at home on Saturday.

While the point could prove invaluable to Borough's chances of making the play-offs, it came at a high price as Darren Baker was stretchered off with a broken arm, which will keep him out for the rest of the season, and those left out on the field had to dig deep into their energy reserves to claw their way back from Richard Howell's first-half opener.

Garry Wilson said: "It would have been nice to win to take some of the pressure off Thursday's game but a point could turn out to be very valuable in the end.

"Losing Darren Baker is a major blow because he is a big player for us and we need to get the other players to recover quickly because they put in a lot of effort in the second half.

"It is still in our hands and we know if we can get a result tomorrow then we have got a great chance to make the play-offs by winning on Saturday."

With Danny Chapman and Danny Simmonds both missing through injury Loui Fazakerley got the nod to start on the right for Borough.

Borough started brightly with Odubade volleying wide and Fazakerley forcing a save from Andrew Young inside the opening ten minutes but they were knocked out of their stride when Baker went off 13th minute to be replaced by Darren Smith.

The visitors slowly began to come into the game and were rewarded in the 25th minute when they took the lead. The Borough defence was caught napping from a corner as Howell found himself all alone at the back post to plant a header past Lee Hook from six yards.

There was little for the 825 crowd to get excited about in the remainder of the first half but it was a different story after the break as Borough threw caution to the wind.

Odubade fired a warning shot when he blazed over from a tight angle before Scott Ramsay hooked over the bar following a great cross by Fazakerley.

Hook almost gifted the visitors a goal when he spilled a high ball in the 68th minute but Duane Jackman failed to profit from his mistake and the Borough goalkeeper made amends two minutes later when he saved brilliantly from substitute Dean Cracknell.

Wilson brought on Matt Crabb for Smith as Borough pushed for an equaliser and it almost brought instant dividends when his cross found Odubade only for the striker's shot to be blocked.

When Fazakerley's shot was turned around the post by Young with less than ten minutes to go it did not look like being Borough's night but they refused to throw in the towel and finally forced an equaliser with four minutes to go. A tired clearance looped inside the Bishop's Stortford area and substitute Danny Williams climbed highest to nod the ball down to Odubade who fired home from close range.