MATT Eggleston believes his Wokingham & Emmbrook side can retain their top-flight status after halting their dismal run with a 5-0 thrashing of Abingdon United, writes Richard Ashton.
The Sumas joint manager watched Josh Pearson grab a second-half hat-trick and Luke Scope and Dan Collier also get on the scoresheet as Wokingham picked up just a second Hellenic League Premier Division win of the season.
The basement boys had previously lost 14 consecutive league games, but last season’s Division One East champions returned to form with a bang on Saturday.
And a delighted Eggleston told the News: “It’s a good win and there were plenty of beers drunk in the clubhouse.
“We’re not going to get cocky. We can’t get carried away, it’s our second win of the season – although there should have been more. 
“We can point to injuries and decisions but we just haven’t been good enough. Hopefully we can move forward and start showing that we deserve to be in this league.”
Eggleston’s side were near to full strength despite missing captain Jake Butler, and the joint boss paid tribute to the commitment of his players and the star quality of Pearson.
He revealed: “We have targeted games and we had three players come a long way to play. Mark O’Connell flew back from South Africa, Dan Collier drove back from Birmingham and James Charlton came from north London.
“With the losing streak it would have been quite easy for them to say they’re unavailable.
“It’s probably the first time I’ve put a 15-man squad together and had the quality. That’s no disrespect to any other players.
“You take a player like James, who has missed 16 games with injury, out of any side and they would struggle. 
“Josh has got quality written all over him. He’s a lovely lad and if you give him a chance in front of goal he hits the target. They were three great goals and the free-kick was a hell of a strike. The other goals came from great team play.”
The Sumas remain 10 points adrift of safety with 17 games remaining, but Eggleston said he and fellow manager Dan Bateman are confident of survival.
He continued: “We’ll take each game as it comes. We’ve looked at the league and you’ve got the top four or five who are always there – Thatcham, who I think will win it – Flackwell Heath, Highworth, Kidlington.
“Then there’s a group of eight and then there’s the bottom eight. Those seven or eight teams above us are our target. If we get something out of those games we won’t go down.
“We’ve not set a points target but there are enough available for us to get out of it. If you listen to every team we’ve come up against, they all ask how are we in the bottom four? 
“We’ve been at the bottom for a variety of reasons and we’ve shipped a lot of goals. That’s the whole side’s fault but as long as we’re scoring goals and keeping them out like we did on Saturday we’ll move forward.”
The Sumas travel to Milton United this coming Saturday (3pm) and Eggleston is targeting three points against another side at the wrong end of the table.
He commented: “We look forward to Saturday and Milton. That’s going to be a challenge. They’re a very direct team. Hopefully we’ll go over there with a fairly strong side and turn them over.
“We go with confidence and we’ll see what happens.”