Eagles 1 Arlesey 0 - update

I’m pleased with the result. Obviously it’s 3 points in the ‘bag’: 1-0 against our local rivals, which was important.
I think today proved the strength in depth we’ve got. We had a lot of players out injured and unavoidably away with other commitments. We were really stretched ‘to the bone’ tonight, but I said to the lads before we went out, the 29 players we have registered to the club are more than capable of playing at this level, and I think tonight proved it. We played Tyler in goal. He wasn’t 100% fit; he was probably only 50%, but Dillon Barnes was unavailable, so we had no option but to convince Tyler to play. To be fair he’s kept a clean sheet and done well. I know there were a couple of fans behind the dugout having a pop at Tyler’s kicking, but his ankle was still heavily strapped, and he was doing the best he could under the circumstances. It is really important for the rest of the fans to know that he has played with an injury, and done really well for us tonight.
Matt Clifford started the game because Peter Gatti was away on an event that had been booked well before he even signed for the Eagles, so there was nothing he could do about it. He is back for Saturday, though, so that is good. Also Joel Norris’ work commitments have taken him up to Hartlepool, so he couldn’t get back in time, and then travel back for 7am the next morning. We had to make a few changes, but like I said, the lads that we have coming in are more than capable. Josh Bamford has come in and got the goal tonight. Matt Clifford has done well in the left back position. The bench was a little bit different. We’ve brought in Marcus Campbell, who hasn’t featured for us yet, and we brought him on and asked him to run the channels for us for the last 15 minutes. He’s done well. Anthony Ottaway has got some minutes in tonight, and also Luke Rowland. He hasn’t featured this season, but is a good strong centre half. Unfortunately Dan Crowie was struggling from Saturday. We had to take him off on Saturday as he was struggling with a hamstring problem; more of a strain rather than a pull. It was tight, and Ryan has worked his magic to get him ready for tonight, but we knew that he probably wasn’t go to last 90 minutes, so Luke has come in for him and is more than capable to do the job for us.
So, like I said: 29 players. We’re going to need them all throughout the course of the season, and more importantly we’ve picked up the 3 points and now we move onto the next game, on Saturday.

Josh Bamford's header 1 minute into 1st half stoppage time ensured another 3 points for the Eagles tonight.
Despite their lowly position, Arlesey made the game difficult for Bedford tonight. Some desparate defending from both sides made sure the game had no other goals.