by Richard Lusmore
With Easington’s two Saturday teams finally set to operate in tandem on a regular basis this season, both are also set to face their sternest tests to date this term.
For the first team in particular, their attempt to repeat last season’s run to the final of the East Riding Senior Country Cup will begin with them having to overcome a Pocklington Town team that already looks as if it’s in the wrong competition.
The visitors are set to make their first visit to Low Farm since January 21, 2017, when they triumphed 6-2 in the Humber Premier League (HPL) return match, having earlier in the season put nine past the locals at home, as Easington’s return from the Central Midlands League to the upper echelons of local football proved a brief one.
Town were crowned HPL champions as recently as 2022-23, but they resigned from the competition midway through last season, citing lack of numbers and commitment.
This season they are back and in some style. Not only are they currently sitting top of York League Division 1, boasting six wins from six, having scored 27 goals and only conceding four, but last week they thumped Poppleton United (currently sitting third in the York Premier Division) 5-0 in the York & District FA Cup!
Throw in their reserve side, which also boasts an unblemished league record in the second tier of the Reserve competition, and you must assume they’ve put their recent troubles behind them.
As such, Andy Graham knows his team are in for a real test and one that comes on the back of two disappointing home defeats. If ever he needed a response from his players, it’s this Saturday.
Following last week’s loss to Holme Rovers, Graham was as critical of himself as he was of his players, saying: “I think as a collective we shirked responsibility today. Sneds (assistant manager Lucas Sneddon) and I need to look at how we are readying the team, because today we started so poorly.”
Graham is also keen to stress the ongoing changes being made, adding: “We’ve had a big turnover of players over the past year and we are a work-in-progress, but we’re still miles off where we want to be.”
Further evidence of those changes came last week when Alex Henshaw (at first team level), and Tom Taylor and Ethan Law (for the reserves) all played their first league games for the club, taking the number of debutants already this season to 12.
Looking ahead to this week and beyond, Graham said his team need to “build again”, which requires “effort, work-rate and physicality”, along with a mental steeliness that has been sadly missing these past two games.
The locals could also do with a decent backing on Saturday, as they look to create what would constitute a real cup upset.
As for the reserves, they travel to Flamborough, hoping to extend their unbeaten start to the Division 1 campaign.
However, while manager John Harrison says that last week’s win at Thorpepark Rangers was “the type of result I was hoping for before the game because they’ve been struggling”, he knows Flamborough will be a much tougher proposition.
Last weekend the seaside outfit put nine past LIV Reserves to climb to third in the table.
The Saturday teams are on their own this weekend, with both the girls and vets teams not back in action for another week.
Away from the action, our thanks go to ACAS Developments Ltd for last week’s match sponsorship and to Andrew Wells at Westmere Farm, Kilnsea for this week’s upcoming county cup-tie sponsorship.
For up-to-date club news, check out our website at easington-united.co.uk, along with our Facebook, Instagram and X/Twitter pages (@EasingtonUtd).