The Eagles ran out 5-4 winners in a crazy game of football, where thanks to a hat-trick from central defender Simon Neary, and a brace from Player/Manager Simon Whaley, Eagley beat the visitors Thornton Cleveleys in a bizzare match.
The game was delayed until 2.15pm due to motorway traffic, and after 15 minutes the visitors were ahead after some sloppy defending let them in giving the Eagley keeper Tom Macdonald no chance. Then from a corner the stalwart central defender Simon Neary rose well above the pack to smash the header home making it all equal at the break.
But it was Thornton that were pushing and after Eagley left a trailing leg out to the onrushing forward the visitors were given a penalty, where they made no mistake to go 2-1 in front. But Neary had other ideas and when we got a corner he smashed in an identical header into the Thornton net 2-2.
But true to form Eagley let the visitors back in and after a good move their forward managed to shoot under the sprawling Macdonald to make it 3-2. However Eagley hadn’t finished and after a cross into the box Neary again got a looping header onto the ball which was just above the keepers reach for his hat trick and 3-3.
Thornton kept pushing though and again Eagley’s poor defending from a corner allowed them a free header to once again take the lead making it 4-3.
Whaley then made two substitutions bringing on Aaron Mccarthy, and then himself for the hard working Jack Horan, which paid off as Mccarthy stood over the Thornton keeper after he collected the ball, and for some bizzare reason kicked out at Mccarthy giving Eagley the all important penalty. Whaley took control of the ball and calmly slotted it into the corner for the equaliser and 4-4.
I think everybody was resigned to a draw at that point in the game but with only a couple of minutes to go Whaley collected the ball and hit it sweetly from distance with his left foot. It dropped down over the keepers head and with the help of the crossbar landed in the back of the Thorton net to win the match 5-4 !!
That’s two wins and draw from the last three matches giving the Eagles a much needed 7 points from 9, and showing that the lads are giving everything now to stay in the league.
When we caught up with manager Simon Whaley after the game he said ‘The lads were great again today showing that they never give up and don’t know when they’re beat. To win again this week is immense and hopefully the lads are starting to enjoy the feeling’
Meanwhile the reserves were not as successful going down 4 nil to Thornton Cleveleys. They went in 3 nil down at the interval and after conceding again in the second half it was too much to pull back. Manager Scott Derbyshire said ‘The lads struggled today, were much better in the second half but sadly we had already lost it in the first half.’
Both teams get a week off next week, with games resuming on Saturday the 13th December.