THE Eagles have been grounded by heavy back to back defeats since returning to action after five postponements in a row.

Manager Sean Regan feels that disruption to Eccleshill's training and having a scratch squad for the games, is the underlying reason for their disappointing performances.

He was upset with the results but believes that he has learned a lot about his players, especially the ones on the fringe.

Regan said: “In regards to preparation it was obvious that we hadn’t been able to put the necessary amount of work. We are short of game time and that showed in the performances.

“The fitness – or lack of it, after not being able to play for so many weeks, was clear for anyone to see. The energy wasn’t there but we were missing influential players last Saturday with Andy Cooper and Mark Trueman out of our midfield.

“We put a couple of young players in there who tried to do a job but we needed experience in that key area. Apart from that it was basically that we have had no game time for weeks.”

Following their 5-0 defeat at Winterton Rangers the Eagles boss had the players in for extra training ahead of Wednesday night’s trip to Westella as they tried to regroup.

Despite conceding a penalty and an own goal they only trailed 3-2 at the break, however, the Eagles shipped another two second half goals without reply.

Having five goals put past them twice was hard to take but they also had key players out then as Charlie Flaherty was also missing. The club taking to Twitter to pass on congratulations to their player and his family after the birth of his second child on the Tuesday.

Regan added: “We will move on from these results and get game time under our belts and we’ll put certain things right. There is one positive in new striker Lee Smith. He came on last Saturday and did very well.

“”We will continue to bring guys in if they are what we want and fit in to the style of football we want to play. It’s a slow, long process and it’s all about being patient at the moment.”