Sometimes the fear of relegation is much worse than relegation itself and while 2011 will hardly be remembered as a vintage year at Eglinton the club has already come out fighting with regard to the rebuilding process.

The villagers are well aware that this threat has been hanging over their heads for the past few seasons and in many ways they seemed to get caught in the headlights and stunted for fear of finishing bottom.

It's a strange situation because there is more than enough quality in the side that they shouldn't be continually in this position. To their credit Andy Christie's side remains fully committed to its ongoing youth policy and that is absolutely the right way to go about fixing things.

They may not thank me for saying this but the biggest loss to the club in the past decade wasn't Craig Averill, Richard Wylie or more latterly Ryan Butterworth but Bobby Rao. The point hasn't been lost to them either and a source at Eglinton has revealed that negotiations are well under way to bring in someone for 2012 who will have a meaningful coaching role at the club.

They have players like Wylie, Chris Pierce, Johnny Gardiner, Neil and Richard Stewart, Mark Averill and Simon Olphert and that ought to be plenty to keep them competitive in the top flight. Why it didn't work this season I have no idea but there seemed to be a collective loss of confidence and resolve and that was to prove their undoing.

A solid win at Donemana showed they are perfectly capable at this level but the harness was missing and in the end they paid the price.

The averages are fairly self explanatory; 744 runs for professional Butterworth with both Wylie and Pierce going over the 500 mark, but not enough support elsewhere while the bowling had a similar look.

Butterworth was again well clear with a very impressive 46 wickets at less than 20 runs each while Gardiner and Wylie were the only others to get past 20. Quite rightly the view from within is that no-one has died and Eglinton intend to make the most of the challenge they now face and be back among the big boys in next to no time.

Their infrastructure is as good as any around and we've already seen that they have the players so the key now will be to keep the squad together and get the focus back.

BATTING

R Butterworth 744-25-33.8- 5x50's
R Wylie 531-25-22.1-4 x50's
C Pierce 517-25-20.7- 4x50's

BOWLING

R Butterworth 197-915-46-19.9- best 5-44
J Gardiner 134-646-26-24.8-best 4-44
R Wylie 159-626-21-29.8-best 3-30