Eagle Sports - Thornton Road Recreation Ground

Eagle Sports FC

Thornton Road Recreation Ground

Thornton Road

Great Sankey

Warrington

Cheshire 

WA5 2SZ

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Ground Number: 1184
Monday 8th May 2023
Eagle Sports 1-2 Whalley Range
Cheshire League Premier

EAGLE SPORTS FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club has a pretty long history, being established back in 1928. They started out as a works team for Electro Hydraulics before a merger with another firm saw them move to Warrington and adopt the name Eagle Sports. They moved to their current ground in the 1940s, also joining the Warrington & District League around that time. They remained there until 2004 when they joined the Cheshire League, which at the time was known as the Mid Cheshire League. A brief name change to Penketh and Sankey Eagle followed, which only lasted for a season as they won Division 2 at the first attempt. Reverting to the name Eagle Sports, they came straight back down after finishing bottom in their first season in Division 1. A runners-up spot in 2009 behind Golbourne Sports saw them return to the top decision once more and this time they stuck around. They remain there to this day in the now-renamed Premier Division. Their best period was in the first half of the 2010s when they had two third-place and two second-place finishes.

They won the Liverpool Junior Cup in 1993, a year after they were beaten finalists. They also won the Warrington Guardian Cup in 2012 and the JB Parker Cup twice. They also won the Liverpool County FA Challenge Cup and the Cheshire Football League Memorial Cup in 2015. The club is based in Great Sankey, a suburb of Warrington. It is two miles west of the town itself and has a population of 25,000. Great Sankey and neighbouring Penketh are amongst the most affluent parts of Warrington, north of the River Mersey. Its key position near the M62 motorway links, and being in between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, make it a popular place to live. It also has a train station on the line from Liverpool to Manchester.

MY VISIT

This was the second part of my treble and was added when I decided to do the reserves game at Greenalls Padgate St Oswalds rather than the first-team game. When I announced my intentions on Twitter, Eagle Sports were the only team to respond. This is understandable at a level where spectators are less common than participants, but it was appreciated all the same. I did my research on Sunday night and was dismayed to see that there was yet more rain scheduled. I'd got a soaking in Northamptonshire recently and it had also hammered it down at Bushey on Saturday. Luckily the referee was sensible and despite the less-than-ideal conditions, the game was completed. I was hoping for similar on this occasion.

Eagle Sports were in 10th whilst Whalley Range were top. The visitors had been crowned champions a week ago. The sides had met in the reverse fixture on Saturday with Whalley Range winning 7-2. The hosts had been unbeaten in five before that, notably doing the double over Middlewich Town. Whalley Range were unbeaten in 13 games, the last team to beat them was today's hosts, recording a 2-1 win in the cup on 18th February. They were unbeaten in the league since October and had recorded a big 5-0 win over Winstanley Warriors prior to Saturday.

A slow referee at our last game and a poor road system in Warrington meant we arrived late. Both seemed a little too keen on telling people what to do. In any case, the visitors had taken a 1-0 lead. Tim Kinsella converted from a penalty when we arrived ten minutes into the game. It was a dominant performance from Whalley Range. When Eagle Sports did get a rare break, their #8 put the ball wide of the post. In the second half, Eagle Sports struck back, a penalty converted by Adam Coleman. The Eagle #19 was a very big chap but probably the best player on the pitch. Calm and composed at centre-back, he won pretty much everything in the air. Whalley Range retook the lead on 67 minutes, a neat finish from a tight angle on the right by Spencer Jenkinson. There had been a couple of strong challenges, as a result, the Whalley Range #5 Julian Silva got his marching orders for a second yellow card.

THE GROUND

THORNTON ROAD RECREATION GROUND is a great setup. The Pitchside is fairly basic, though better than a lot at this level with a railed pitch. It is decorated with a number of banners which give it a bit of character. The car park is not the largest, but there's plenty of street parking. Pride of place goes to the smart bar which has a reasonable range of drinks at fair prices. There's also a Cafe but I didn't see this.