The Eagles came out 8-2 victors against a Curzon Ashton Select XI at the weekend, marking Eccleshill United's first victory of pre-season as the squad continues to develop ahead of the new campaign.

Despite the impressive scoreline, the boss admitted that performance wise he expects better from his side, stating: "Performance wise, if I'm honest, we went in 4-0 up at half time and we weren't happy with it.

"It's got nothing to do with score lines as we said with previous games it's all about performance and progressing and I certainly thought performance wise we didn't even kick into second gear all the way through the first half.

"No disrespect to their team, they had a lot of young lads that can play football with a lot of energy and they were technically pretty good too. But at the same time we just never kicked into gear whatsoever so performance wise, we have to be better. "

Regan decided to implement a new formation for the game as he continues to test things out ahead of Eccleshill's season opener against Yorkshire Amateurs and he felt it worked well overall.

He said: "I think every formation would work with our boys as long as they work hard both in and out of possession. If that doesn't happen then sometimes it's nothing to do with formations but it is just them reacting to things quicker and being organised quicker. Whether we play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or whatever system we play the first thing is, are we going to work hard when we lose the ball?"

Another positive for Regan was seeing both Chris Lever and Marcus Edwards get some goals ahead of the season: "It is good, Chris Lever gives the team the energy, he chases everything down and works really hard and he deserves what he gets as he's had to come off the bench in a couple of games now; he shows you what he can bring to the team.

"For Marcus, that's always a good thing as it creates a lot of confidence for us moving forward with his goal scoring ability. "

With Dominic Smith unavailable for the friendly, Regan made the decision to give a Pro-Elite trialist a run out in between the sticks and he was impressed with the display he saw from the young debutant.

Speaking of his performance Regan stated: "I thought he did really well, I think it took him five or 10 minutes to get into it and get used to the players but I think he has had a really good game, he's a pretty confident lad and he's not done anything wrong today. This can only be good for him and his progress as a player and whether he wants to stay at Eccleshill United is another matter."

Finally, Sean discussed how his side is shaping up ahead of the new season with pre-season almost finished: "Things are shaping up well as long as we don't get any injuries but we are progressing really well and it is heading in the right direction for what we want.

"Every game is tough and Brighouse will bring another big test for us but as long as we keep doing what we are doing we will be absolutely fine and we will be ready."