EATON TOWN
SOCCER CLUB

Tough Day at the Office for Eaton Reserves

 A much depleted reserves team took the field for Eaton Town for the second round cup game against Busselton on the neutral turf of Hay Park in perfect conditions.  A bare 11 fit players were available.  Again veterans Shilcof and Club President Marsh were called into action.  Work commitments kept the international brigade out.   Medway and Butler the stand outs from the first round cup game against Collie were also not available.   Lucas is making a welcome return to provide speed and strength which was a positive for the line up.

 Busselton had more subs than you could poke a stick at and their coach had them fired up before the game.  From the kick off it was apparent that a repeat of the great result at Collie was not likely to be had this week.  The Busselton team were faster on the day and soon picked out the Eaton weak spots and exploited them with out mercy.  A scramble in the box and the first was in for Busselton in short time.  A free kick slipped over keeper Batten’s outstretched hands for a second soon after and the die was set for a long afternoon in the trenches.

 The Eaton defence was under constant pressure.  Strange was a bit rusty for the first half after a much interrupted start to the season.  Lucas was in everything trying to get his team mates up and running.  A penalty and own goal added to the woes of the day for Eaton.  Wilcox took over the coaching from the lines and got vocal trying to get the most out of the depleted team.

 Eaton made a few good moves forward with Shilcof making some well placed kicks into the box, but the Eaton forwards were not able to get on the end of them.  Busselton got more and more confident as the game went on.  Strange started to find some form and one of his trade mark bone jarring clashes left one of the Busselton players to be assisted off the pitch. 

 Coach Shilcof tried to swing the changes moving to a three man back line and pushing Lucas into the middle.  All to no avail and the goals kept coming.  To add injury to insult Shilcof hobbled off with a leg injury late in the game and Eaton were down to 10 men.

 This correspondent lost count of the final score but it was 7 + to zip by the end. 

 The final whistle brought the sorry tale to an end.  The players tried their best but were simply outclassed on the day. 

 Bring on the next match with Busselton in the home and away games, hopefully with the “normal” squad and we will see a much closer contest.  A full strength Eaton will give them a run for their money.

By Neil Strange