Eagles still have work to do – coach

Ruislip Eagles coach Marc Fayemi says his team still have work to do after they bounced back from a shock opening-day defeat with a 33-25 victory against Deva in the National Super 8 Handball League.

The Eagles, whose season began with a disastrous home loss to Leeds Hornets, gave league debuts to Tobias Stockfleth, Jakub Brzozowski and Oliver Barton, with Hadrian Polino rejoining the squad.

Chester-based Deva boast an exciting but inexperienced team and they lacked the finesse to overcome a strong Eagles defence, with Hannes Mazur and Dennis Werner displaying great composure and strength, forcing several turn-overs in favour of Ruislip.

After opening up a five-goal lead, the visitors incurred some avoidable two-minute suspensions and relied upon several superb saves from Stefan Bauer.

But with some speedy transitional play, Eagles went into half-time with an eight-goal advantage.

Both teams were guilty of sloppy play after the interval, but Fayemi’s side managed to hold on to their advantage – setting them up nicely for a London derby against old rivals Olympia the week after next.

Fayemi said: “We did well. It is always hard to play Chester in their home ground and after a long journey we sometimes struggle to hit the ground running, but that was not the case.

“However, it is safe to say that we will need to keep working hard on the understanding between players in attack if we want to avoid the kind of performance dip we have seen in the second 30 minutes. Olympia will be a real test for us!”

Eagles team: Stefan Bauer, Tibor Szerencse (goalkeepers) – Jozsef Csontos (7), Hannes Mazur (6), Tobias Stockfleth (5), Fabien Colette (4), Hadrien Pollino (3), Denis Werner (2), Lucas Carstens (2), Jakub Brzozowski (2), Oli Barton (2), Gil Lewis.

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