Eagley on the up
12:20pm Friday 5th February 2010 in Amateur Football By Neil Bonnar
EAGLEY are exceding expectations in the West Lancashire League this season, but they are not about to become complacent.
The Dunscar Bridge men are currently seventh in the West Lancashire League Premier Division.
And while they are still a little way off threatening for silverware, manager Paul Marriott’s men are causing a stir as the form team of the division.
They caused a shock last Saturday when they denied Charnock Richard the chance to go top by beating them 2-1 away.
The victory was impressive and deserved and stretched their unbeaten run to six games.
They have a good chance of extending that run to eight with two games against teams in the bottom three coming up in the next eight days.
But captain Phil Regan says Eagley are not in a position to take anyone lightly yet, especially as Dalton hammered his side earlier in the season.
“They beat us at our place 3-0 so we know it’s not going to be an easy game,” he said of Eagley’s next opponents in the league a week tomorrow.
Dalton are currently bottom of the table and, before that, Eagley face the team two places and one point higher, Freckleton, in the first round of the Richardson Cup away tomorrow.
“It would be nice to win the cup,” said the 32-year-old central midfielder, “but our main priority is to secure our place in the league.
“We are on a good run at the moment and we just want to keep it going.”
Eagley’s current points tally of 26 from 18 games is just two short of their final total last season.
With another 14 games remaining in the league they are looking like a team on the up.
And Regan puts the improvement down to team spirit and having a settled side.
“I only joined in October last season but I’m told they struggled for players at the start of the season.
“We got a few more players in before Christmas and we started to gel.
“We’ve got a settled team now with the same core of the side which played the second half of last season.”
Eagley are eight points off the top and are looking to build on their current momentum.
“If someone had said at the start of the season that we’d finish in the top 10 we’d have taken that,” said Regan.
“But because of the run we’re on and the way we’re playing we’re looking at top five.”
Regan, who is from Little Lever where he still lives, has played on the local amateur football scene for 16 years.
He played his way through the open age teams at Little Lever Sports Club to the first team in the Lancashire Amateur League Premier Division, and has had spells with the now defunct Little Lever FC and Manchester League sides Pennington and Breightmet United before returning to Little Lever and then moving on to Eagley 16 months ago.
He has flitted between centre half and central midfield throughout his career, and it is in the latter role that he is having a major influence on Eagley’s improved fortunes.
“I’ve always played locally since I was 16,” he said.
“I don’t know how many years I’ve got left in me but I’m enjoying it more than ever.
“We had a good second half of the season last season and we won the Hospital Cup at the Reebok Stadium.
“It was my first game at the Reebok and it was a great experience.
“This season is going well and I put it down to the fact that we play as team.
“We’ve not got as many superstars in the team as some other teams but we play for each other and we’ve got a good team spirit.
“We’ve got a good keeper in Gareth Williams and central midfielder Tom Morgan is only 18 or 19 and is our leading scorer.
“We’ve got a young lad called Ryan Porter, who scored for us last week and looks good. He’s 17 and has only played three games for us but he’s going to be a good one. And then we have some older heads in the side like me and Carl Banks who has been at the club for 10 years.”
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