Match Preview

Eccleshill United make the short trip to face familiar opponents this weekend as the Eagles take on Yorkshire Amateur, a side who were promoted to the NCEL Premier Division alongside Eccleshill United last season.

The two teams know each other very well after spending several years playing against each other every week with last season seeing Yorkshire pip the Eagles to the post in order to secure automatic promotion.

The last time the two Yorkshire sides met came in the final game of the season in what was a "Winner Takes All" game where Yorkshire came out on top in order to finish second, leaving the Eagles to push through an incredible Play-Off experience.

Since gaining promotion Yorkshire has gone from strength to strength and have started the season incredibly, currently sitting in second place after a fantastic start to the season.

Yorkshire head into the game off the back of a 3-1 victory against Harrogate Railway Athletic and you would have to go back to the very first game of the season to find Amateur's only league defeat of the season so far.

Once again, experienced striker Ashley Flynn will be out to cause problems and is someone that the Eagles know all about and having scored nine goals already this season, placing him as the league top scorer, the Eccleshill defense will need to be on form to deal with him.

The Eagles will also be heading into the game with plenty of confidence having won the last two games in a row which has seen Sean Regan's men climb to seventh in the league table.

Sean Regan will once again have plenty of options to pick from in all positions with the only notable absentee being Aran Basi, whilst Jonny Irving and Liam Hudson also remain unavailable with long-term injuries.

Regan will be more than confident though with Matt Mathers having returned from injury last week and captain, Sam Bradley returning to the club this weekend whilst there will be plenty of attacking options from Antony Brown and Ben Grech-Brooksbank to Luke Harrop and Jake Thompson.

With both teams knowing each other so well it is going to be a difficult game for either side to dominate, knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses, but with both teams on form and having plenty to prove in a new division, there will be plenty to play for in the Yorkshire derby.