Match Report: Eccleshill United FC 4-0 Winterton Rangers

The Eagles showed their class in a dominant 4-0 win over Winterton Rangers on Saturday, in their penultimate game of the season.

Winterton started the game brightly, not making any clear cut chances but still aiming to impose themselves on the game to stop Eccleshill from playing their usual fast paced passing game.

The first chance of the game went Eccleshill’s way, after Mark Bower picked out Luke Harrop on the left flank with a big kick, who then crossed to Matt Mathers in the middle. Mathers showed his strength by holding off a defender and managing to squeeze a shot away, but the strike was blocked for a corner.

The resulting corner was whipped towards the front post with Liam Hudson arriving to meet it, but his glanced header was cleared off the line by a Winterton defender.

A minute later the away side went close with a corner of their own, but the powerful header from the edge of the six yard box took a nick on its way to the goal and went narrowly wide of the post.

Mathers would open the scoring with his first in the 23rd minute. Harrop found him with a perfectly weighted ball over the top, and Mathers kept his cool, scoring with a deft chip over the keeper from the edge of the box.

That opening goal buoyed the Eccleshill players, and they were looking to kill the game before half time.

Three minutes after the opener, Andy Cooper picked out Charlie Flaherty on the right hand side of the box with a long ball, and Flaherty’s clipped cross to the back post was inches away from being a perfect set up for Edwards arriving late.

Not many big chances were made following that goal, but Eccleshill would double their lead on the stroke of half time, with Mathers completing his brace. Edwards was causing problems on the left hand side, and he took on his man before standing up a perfect cross to the back post, which Mathers powered into the back of the net.

Similarly to the first half, Winterton came out the better of the two sides to begin the half, but Eccleshill were defending resolutely to keep their two goal lead intact.

The Eagles would score their third goal of the game 13 minutes into the second half, and this one was the pick of the bunch.

Edwards was the architect yet again, this time popping up on the right and standing up a cross to the edge of the box to Liam Hudson, who showed brilliant technique to volley the ball into the top right hand corner on his left foot, giving the keeper no chance.

Winterton were still looking for a way back into the game, and almost had one in the 62nd minute. The visitors caught Eccleshill on the break, but their number 12 struck well over from a decent position.

Cooper then popped up in the 71st minute to round off the scoring, and earning Harrop his second assist of the game.

Harrop showed his quality on the ball, nutmegging his man on the left flank, before fizzing in a low cross to Cooper’s feet, who remained calm and took a few touches to fashion a shooting chance, eventually poking the ball in from just inside the six yard now to make it 4-0.

Winterton almost pulled one back from a corner eight minutes later, but Liam Bartle was well placed to clear the header off the line and help The Eagles keep their clean sheet intact.

The Eagles defended well for the remainder of the game and showed their game management skills to keep the clean sheet, and record yet another impressive win.

Sean Regan’s side now turn their attention to this Saturday’s game against Hallam, which will be their final game of the season. The squad will want to end the season on a high, and a win would allow them to do just that.