ECCLESHILL United returned to action on Wednesday evening and beat a strong Yorkshire Amateur outfit 3-1, in a pre-season friendly.

The fixture was United’s first since returning to training after a while away, and manager Lee Elam was pleased with his side’s performance.

He said: “I was very pleased. Obviously, it was the first game back and I think the performance is more important than the result at this stage.

“And the performance was good. Everyone got some minutes out of a 17 man-squad, so overall I was pleased with how it went.

“We’ve brought in a few new players, so it was nice to see them, but it was also important to look at the lads who played last season. It was a good chance to get them on the pitch, and to see where we are at after our first few sessions.

“We’ve had our first few sessions, which has allowed us to get up to speed quite quickly. Some of the players looked really sharp, but of course, we tired later on in the game, but that’s understandable after only being back for a short period of time.”

Elam added: “I’m not going to look into the result too much to be honest with you.

“It was their first game too and they put out two squads in both halves.

“We used a lot of players, so the performance was good in terms of how I wanted my lads to listen and take on board instructions.”

Eccleshill have brought in six trialists in the off-season, ahead of the new campaign, and Elam confirmed that he got to have a good look at his new recruits in the victory against Yorkshire Amateur.

He said: “We got a good look at them in the game, and all of them did okay. None of them looked out of place.

“The majority of them are younger lads, with the exception of a couple of experienced heads, and from their performances, they looked like they could cope with this level, which is what I’m after.”

Eccleshill face Ilkley Town on Saturday in their second pre-season friendly of the summer- a side who recently reached Step 6 football for the first time in the club’s history.

And Elam admitted he has heard good things about Saturday’s opposition.

He said: “On a personal note, I don’t know much about Ilkley Town. I haven’t seen them too much of them, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about them.

“I’ve been told they like to play football and they’ve got a good 4G surface, so that encourages to play football.

“So, we’re going there and hopefully it will be a good footballing game, with two teams looking to play football on the floor.

“Obviously there coming up the leagues as well, so it will be a good test for us. They are playing ourselves, and we are in a higher division than them, so they’ll be wanting to impress.

“We’ve got to treat it like we did the other night, like we’re playing a team above.

“We want to go out and win the game again, so as long we’ve got the right attitude, I’ll be happy.”

Saturday KO time: 3:00 pm