ELI MAKES HIS BRIG MOO-VE!
WHEN BRIGHOUSE Town manager Vill Powell was signing Eli Hey last month he knew he would really be beefing up his strikeforce.
Powell had been on the case of the 6ft tall and strongly built Mytholmroyd cattle farmer Hey for the past two seasons but a serious injury against his side in the 2018-19 season got in the way.
Hey, 25, is now fully recovered from his right knee injury which was reconstructed aided by a plate, seven pins and then a bone graft.
“I give it (the knee) a real go, not doing it by halves,” he said.
“However it is fine now after I came back to work on it with Eccleshill United and then a short spell at Colne before the Covid-19 shutdown.”
Before the injury, the former Calder High School student was flying at Pontefreact Collieries and going head-to head with Town’s Aaron Martin for the Golden Boot award for the highest number of goals in the season. He had 25 and felt confident he would go on and take the award.
Later in that season Town beat Pontefract 3-0 to win the NPL play-off final for the division but were not promoted under an FA ruling over points attained in the regular season, and Hey got to see from the sidelines the typical side his new boss can put together.
“I am really feeling good after a couple of weeks training and the squad Vill has constructed looks really good and was enhanced last week with Tom Haigh, another former junior like me at the club, signing on again despite attention from a division above.”
Hey had a junior career at Huddersfield club HAFC, then Brighouse Juniors under
Sam Wood and Rick Addy and played for Brighouse Town Juniors U-19s when Paul Quinn was managing the senior side. He then went to Bradford side Campion before heading to Pontefract where he scored around 60 goals for the club.
Since leaving school he has worked with his dad Frank on the farm which is based in the former premises of Thornber’s Chickens and was owned by the late Halifax Town chairman Cyril Thornber. They have a herd of almost 100 beef cows, sheep, new-born lambs and also take on contracting work putting up posts and fencing for other farms. “I have settled in well and now just want to hear a date for the season to be starting,” he added.
Hey’s cousin, Isaac Baldwin, the former Brighouse Town, FC Halifax Town, Ossett Town and Farsley Celtic utility player, has signed for Witton Albion in Cheshire as a left-back.
Manager Powell says training has been going well despite the distancing and group regulations and he is pleased with his squad but also added he has 11 trialists to give playing time to once games can be played.