EAGLEY’S testing season continued with a devastating derby loss at home to Tempest United, courtesy of Jack Burke’s 92-minute winner.

The Eagles have not been soaring at all this term and spent Christmas propping up the rest of the Premier Division.

Hopes of a new year bringing better fortunes were dashed as Eagley were forced to fight back from 2-0 down within the first 10 minutes. They did, however, go into half time level and got back on terms after Tempest had scored a third shortly before the hour mark. But Burke’s strike, coming on the break after the visitors had been defending a corner, gave Tempest a victory assistant manager Gary Westhead admitted they did not deserve.

“We were lucky, to be honest,” he said. “We went 2-0 up very early and the lads must have got it into their heads it would be a walk in the park, they looked like they went into cruise control. Eagley were the better side and came back well with two good goals. Even when we went 3-2 up it was far from easy and their goal to make it 3-3 was a worldie.

“We thought that was how it would finish and it would have been a fair result but they got a corner in the last minute and because they need points they gambled and went two-on-two at the back, we broke away and got the goal – that’s how your luck goes when you’re at the bottom.

“It can be a cruel game and Eagley battled really well in a game that could have gone either way.

“It was a good three points for us – not a great performance but we have played better and not got the rewards so we’ll take it.”

As for Eagley, their defeat means they have it all to do in the second half of the season if they are to avoid the drop into Division One.

Boss Simon Whaley was left cursing Tempest’s early salvo that made it a long afternoon for his side, but he remains confident they have enough – with new loan signings Zack Hargreaves and Jack Corcoran from Ramsbottom United and former Darwen midfielder Bailey Wallace also joining – to stage a great escape.

“That first mad 20 minutes cost us the game,” he said. “We were excellent after that, we dominated a lot of the game and came from behind twice, Bailey’s goal in particular was terrific, he went past three players before smashing it in.

“But we had put so much into getting back there were a lot of tired legs out there and a mistake from us led to Tempest’s fourth goal, that was a killer.

“I’m confident we can get out of this situation though, we’ve got some new players in, the lads are all working hard so we just need to start turning that into picking up points.

“We definitely need to beat Hesketh Bank this Saturday, they are down there with us and if we can just get a break going our way and put a couple of wins together we can get right back in it.”

Tempest, meanwhile, have an unenviable away fixture to contend with this weekend, as they travel to leaders Longridge Town.

But after a successful first half to a campaign that followed promotion last season, Westhead is delighted with how 2017 is shaping up for the Lostock club.

“We have struggled at home, for some reason,” he said. “We’ve won seven of 11 games away so we’ll go to Longridge without any pressure and we’ll see what they’re about. We have nothing to fear, we don’t ‘expect’ to get the points but we will be confident going into the game.

“We have a lot to play for, we are fifth in the table and anything from sixth onwards we would have taken before the season started, especially as we had just come up.

“We still have the semi-final of the Shield to come against Blackpool Wren Rovers and we may be re-instated into the League Cup as Lostock played an ineligible player when they beat us. We’ll wait and see on that one but the lad in question was a goalkeeper who saved two penalties so we might end up in the semis of that competition too.

“We have exceeded our expectations already and there is still a lot for us to play for.”