ALBURY

EAGLES

FOOTBALL

CLUB

 NEWSLETTER

Issue No 50

15^th March 2006

We are getting on towards the end of the season now, and still no sign of Spring.

Latest match reporting takes in games during the first two Saturdays of March. The first Saturday’s weather was extremely cold, and it was a struggle to find any games that survived the heavy overnight frost, down to –5 degrees celcius.

U13s

04.03.06

East Grinstead 2 – 3 Albury Eagles

The lads have found some form now, with their third straight win.

This game was hard fought, and a bit of a rearguard action in the second half, but a dominant first half display proved to be decisive in engineering this win.

Will Westcott gave us the lead after  2mins with a tap in following some nice build up play.

The home side were level after 10 mins, but Albury rallied well to dominate the rest of the first half scoring two more through Jack Berringer, and a Ronaldinho type lob from the touchline from Will Westcott , his second of the game.

EG nipped one back straight after the break, but Albury held firm at the back for their well earned win.

MoM to Steven Robinson for some great midfield tenacity, blocking many EG moves and setting up several Albury attacks.

Great displays also today particularly from Finlay, Hugh, Matt Cox, Will H solid in goal, and Sam Schoen whose lightning speed enabled him to cover so much ground today.

This win now moves us off the bottom of the table at long last, with some interesting games coming up for the run in.                                    Tony Hern

U12s

04.03.06

Albury Eagles P-P Forest Row

Match Postponed due to Frozen Pitch

U11s

4.03.06

Roffey P-P Albury Eagles

Match Postponed due to Frozen Pitch

U9s

04.03.06

Albury Eagles 0-1 Priory Panthers

The Eagles first loss of the season also saw particularly in the first half, some of their best football.  Fraser Millis (player of the week), Oliver Stephens and Alex Connolly (Captain) in particular made sure the Eagles had control and the majority of possession, with clever passing and ball control.  There were few scoring opportunities despite shots on target from Fraser, Oliver and Harry Ford.  The defence, Hugh Ferris and Alex, led by Oli Turner in goal, adopted close man to man marking to make sure no Priory attacks were successful.

In the second half, despite the Eagles not finding the same form of the first half they had a lot of possession and some convincing attacks with Oliver, Sam Parsons, Joe Mapp all with shots on goal.  Alex’s head on the line saved a goal and Priory’s few other chances included a corner, which curled across the goal mouth and then in.  The Eagles fought back but were unable to find the net.

The Priory coaches said afterwards that the Eagles had played like worthy champions.  The Eagles are focused on winning their league and now have 3 matches to go; 6 wins to date, no draws and only this match conceded.

Andrew Lewis

On to Saturday 11^th March…..

U13s

11.03.06

Albury Eagles 0-1 Upper Beeding

A very exciting match to watch.

Albury continued with their 3-4-3 formation and were unlucky to be a goal down at the break, one of Will H’s goal kicks going straight to a UB attacker who quickly tucked it away in the corner for the lead.

Albury spent almost the entire second half attacking, battering the UB goal, including hitting the bar twice, but today the breaks just did not come our way.

Everybody worked really hard and all shared the MoM trophy this week.   TH

U12s

11.03.06

Albury 3-1 Horsham Sparrows

It was nice to get back to winning ways this week, and with a good performance too! Albury lead 2 - 0 at halftime with goals from Harvey Owen and Chris Caley. The team put together some good passing moves and really boosted their confidence this week. Chris Caley scored again in the second half to make it 3 – 0. Horsham scored a consolation goal to make the final score 3 - 1.Chris Caley was Man of the Match for his 2 goals and a good performance which regained his confidence.

John Caley

U11s

11.03.06

Copthorne 1-7 Albury Eagles

Saturday saw us at Copthorne on a small pitch again. Usually this hinders our goal scoring and when we

missed 4 or 5 chances in the first few minutes I thought it would happen again. Albury had the upper hand and most of the possession which lead to 4 goals by half time. In the second half we had a shaky couple of minutes with Copthorne pulling one back. We soon took the initiative again with Harry and Daniel both completing their hat-tricks, along with Oliver’s opener, and we ran out comfortable winners 7 - 1. This week James Hern with some perfectly timed tackles in important positions and Archie showing good skill and determination in midfield shared MoM.                        Mark Hurman

U10s

11.03.06

Albury Griffins 4-0 Tadworth

Chris Brooks (3)

Harvey Marshall

U9s

11.03.06

BrockhamWhite 3-1 Albury Eagles

I have taken an executive decision and have decided to return the orange goalkeeping top to Tony Hern. It's had 2 outings and we've been beaten twice, it is obviously cursed and must be disposed of. Yet again we played the better football on Saturday and created lots of chances but didn't have any luck in front of goal. Other teams and particularly opposing goalkeepers are obviously raising their game when they play us. Brockham White have given us the two hardest matches this year and some of the most outrageous tackles, and it just wasn't our day.

             Trevor Stephens

U9s

11.03.06

Brockham Blues 2-1 AlburyGriffins

A disappointing result on Saturday but bearing in mind that we only had seven players available we were perhaps a little unfortunate to lose 2-1. We are now third in the league but one win from our last two games will guarantee us second place and two wins would guarantee us the top spot, so it’s in our hands.

              Dave Mackenzie

Albury Eagles U9 early 2006 review

With the absence of regular scribe Andrew Lewis for most of the early 2006 fixtures, match reports have been fairly sketchy prior to the recent 2 defeats against Priory Panthers and Brockham White.

Whatever happens in the remaining 2 league fixtures we are guaranteed a position in the Champions League Cup to be played between the top to 2 teams in each of the Leagues A and B of the Tadworth League and the season to date has already delivered many memorable moments.

2006 started with an away friendly at Brockham Blue of League B.  A reduced squad of seven players was available and without regular keeper Oli Turner the Eagles put in a sterling performance in bitterly cold conditions. In the end the Eagles came away with a convincing 3-0 away win with 2 goals from Joe Mapp and 1 from Fraser Millis. The game was notable for the all round team performance and a particularly good effort from Sam Parsons who in goal for the first time who survived a biting wind in the first half by jogging around the penalty area to keep warm whilst Brockham Blue gave him little to do and then followed it up with some excellent saves including one exceptional block in the second half. Sam was pipped for player of the week by a superb performance from Joe Mapp who benefiting from playing the full game scored two excellent goals. Harry Ford also found his feet with a good performance playing from the back inter changing well with Oli Stephens in right midfield.

This performance was followed with an away fixture at Holmbury Wolves of League B. The coach was absent but Dave Mackenzie of the Griffins stood in and gave the appropriate wake up message when the Eagles had the new experience of being 1-0 down at half time. The half time team talk obviously did the trick as the second half saw the Eagles come away with a 6-2 victory with a second half hat trick from Tristan Moses and 2 goals from Fraser Millis and a goal from Joe Mapp. Player of the week went to keeper Oli Turner playing in his home village and keeping the Eagles in the game during a complacent  first half.

A home friendly with Ewhurst followed. Ewhurst are not currently playing in a league and I was looking for a return to our open passing game in what was a low key friendly. At half time the Eagles were 2-0 up after a lack lustre first half performance. An improvement in the second half performance in which the Eagles stamina was telling, delivered a convincing 7-0 win notable for Fraser Millis’ first headed goal of the season, a stunning strike from Will Onslow which was matched by Sam Parsons dribble through the Ewhurst defence before sticking the ball in the top corner and Harry Ford dancing past the defence to stroke the ball in for his first goal of the season. Scorers were Fraser Millis (2), Will Onslow (2) Sam Parsons (2) and Harry Ford.

The 4^th Feb saw the first league fixture of 2006 with a difficult match at Walton Warriors. The Eagles delivered their best performance of the season to date and played Walton off the park with a very satisfying all round team performance.  A competitive first half saw the Walton goalkeeper under siege as the Eagles dominated play with slick passing and sharp tackles. Stand in keeper Sam Parsons had little to do as Hugh Ferrey was imperious at the back letting nothing pass and Alex Connolly was reliable as ever leading the team by example. Going forward the midfield of Joe Mapp , Will Onslow and Oli Stephens supporting centre forward Fraser Millis were dictating play and the deadlock was eventually broken when Will Onslow’s corner was met by a spectacular header from Oli Stephens from 5 or 6 yards out that went straight in the top corner despite Walton’s keeper getting a despairing hand to it. The second half started in a similar vein but with Walton striking out and breaking through only for an excellent shot on goal to be plucked out the air by a cat like save from Sam Parsons. Harry Ford was making excellent use of the space in the second half and was brought down in the box for a dubious penalty. Oli Stephens stepped up to curl the ball into the top corner. This was quickly followed by an Eagles break down the right wing with a cross eluding the Walton keeper for Oli Stephens to tap the ball in for his hat trick. The match was sewn up by an excellent break as player of the week Oli Stephens played the ball through to centre forward Fraser Millis who laid the ball off first time for Harry Ford to break away and plant one in off the post from wide on the right wing.

Andrew’s match reports on recent defeats against Priory Panthers have already been posted but the results should not mask some excellent play. The first half performance against Priory Panthers was again exceptional and the opposition coaches were fulsome in their praise for the standard of Eagles play. Two more league fixtures await and I hope the boys get their reward with championship medals but irrespective of results their development as individuals and as a team has been very rewarding.

            Trevor Stephens

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Eagles Trip to Majedski

Albury Eagles’ status as a Charter Standard Club with the FA gave us access to 25 free tickets to see England’s U21s take on Norway on Tuesday evening (28^th Feb) at Reading’s Madejski stadium.

There was a great atmosphere in the ground which everyone enjoyed, and three home goals to cheer as England ran out comfortable 3-1winners.

We allocated the tickets on a firstcome-first served basis, and it is quite likely that this opportunity will reoccur in the near future.

Albury Cricket Club Dinner…….

A new season of cricket is rapidly appearing on the horizon and as is our tradition we’ll be kicking the season off with our annual dinner to which you are all invited as members or associate members of the club.

At last year’s event we saw representatives from all elements of the club, senior cricket, junior cricket and Eagles football club which was a huge boost for the collective support of the club. We even saw Drew’s rather odd jacket which he assures us has been upgraded for this year! This year our intention is to build on this success and hopefully see even greater numbers from each of the constituent parts of the club.
The format for the evening is a three course dinner followed by SHORT(!) speeches and then music to dance to

DATE: FRIDAY 28th APRIL 2006
VENUE: SILVERMERE GOLF CLUB
TIME: 7.30 for 8.00
PRICE: £29.50 per head

We would genuinely love to see as many members as possible at the dinner from all spectrums of the club – it would be hugely helpful if people could try and get together with some friends to make up a table of 8 or 10 guests? This is not a formal event and we promise that the formalities will be kept to a minimum!
Tim Wall

Sec Albury Cricket Club

Keep up to date with results from all our teams by checking our website,

www.alburyeagles.com

Editor  -  Tony Hern

01483 202936   07891 480343

Email: tonyhern@lineone.net