NEW Eagles manager Mark Greaves was effusive in his praise for summer capture Luke Harrop and the plaudits were well deserved as the forward has taken his pre-season form into the league campaign.

Harrop also appears to be a talismanic figure as the three pre-season friendly games he scored in were all wins while Eccleshill failed to register a victory in the three when the forward didn’t feature on the scoresheet.

That record was broken when Harrop scored in the first league game of the season, a 4-3 home defeat to newcomers Westella VIP, and diluted even more when he netted in last weekend’s 3-2 derby defeat at Yorkshire Amateur.

However, the Eagles’ only victory in the four games so far this term came with a 7-2 home win over Winterton Rangers and Harrop helped himself to a hat-trick.

Greaves said: “Luke has made a very good start to his time with us but I’m not at all surprised by that.

“He has scored goals but he looked very sharp in pre-season and he has worked very hard both before the season started and since. I’m very pleased with his start and pleased for the lad.”

Greaves knows that one win in four is not an ideal start to the season but he feels that the results will come. The man who was number two at Liversedge last season is expecting an upturn in fortunes.

He said, “It’s been a hectic start with five games in the first month, Saturday midweek, Saturday, it’s relentless.

“But you can’t pick up points without winning games so it’s a very good opportunity for us. There are plenty of chances for us with 11 league games from a fortnight last Saturday to the end on September.

“That is almost a quarter of the season in the first two months so I’m hoping we get a lot of points on board and start to climb that table.”