Eastleigh FC

BANBURY UNITED v EASTLEIGH SATURDAY 31st JULY 2010 Pre-Season Friendly Report by Ray Murphy Eastleigh took on the next stage of their pre-season warm up programme with a trip to Zamaretto Southern League side Banbury United. Banbury had finished season 2009/10 in a mid table position just one place below the big spending Truro City. Manager Ian Baird took the opportunity to give a start to Toby Osman a right-sided midfield player who has previously been with Clevedon Town, Salisbury City, Exeter City and Birmingham City. The nineteen-year-old being the son of ex-Southampton defender Russell Osman. Gareth Barfoot retained the goalkeeper’s jersey whilst Danny Smith took over at right back with Warren Goodhind switching to the left flank. Chris Holland and Tom Jordan taking the central defensive roles. With Osman wide on the right, Richard Graham patrolled the left flank whilst Jamie Brown returned to the midfield alongside Ross Bottomley. Jamie Slabber and Staforde Palmer starte...

By Wendy Gee - EASTLEIGH have been dealt a huge blow in the build-up to the Blue Square Bet South season with news that Peter Adeniyi will be out for between two and three months. The towering midfielder's knee injury - a remnant from the Staines Town away game on February 27 - turned out to be a lot more serious than the Spitfires had feared. "Peter had micro-surgery on his knee last Saturday and I'm led to believe he will be out for between eight and twelve weeks, which is a massive blow," confirmed Spitfires boss Ian Baird. The exact nature of Adeniyi's injury is unclear, but Baird said: "It's not ligament damage or anything like that. "It's a problem that might not clear up and it maybe that he will have to play with a bit of pain for the rest of his career. "He played in pain at the latter end of last season and it's possible the operation won't fully cure it." Adeniyi, 30, signed for Eastleigh from Bromley in Dece...

By Wendy Gee - EASTLEIGH would love to see Aaron Martin back on his old stomping ground next Monday (August 2) when Saints wrap up their pre-season preparations at the Silverlake Stadium (7.45pm). After weeks of speculation about his impending move to St. Marys, the 20-year-old centre-back ended up leaving the Spitfires in such a rush last November that there was no chance for Eastleigh fans to bid him a proper farewell. Martin, an outstanding graduate of Eastleigh's youth system and a former student at nearby Itchen College, is the classic 'local boy made good.' Having signed for Saints on an initial 18-month contract, the former England Colleges defender was made captain of the reserve side before being loaned out to gain experience in the Football Conference with Salisbury City. He made his full first-team debut for Saints at Gillingham on May 1, earning rave reviews from manager Alan Pardew. He then gave another sure-footed performance against Southend on the la...

BASHLEY v EASTLEIGH TUESDAY 27th JULY 2010 Pre-Season Friendly Report by Jamie Montigue After a week away in Devon in the Joma South West Challenge Cup, Eastleigh returned to pre-season action tonight with a 2-0 victory at Bashley. BRETT POATE handed Ian Baird's side an early lead with a stunning 5 th minute free kick, which flew in off the upright and left the Bashley goalkeeper motionless. Summer signing Richard Graham looked in good form showing excellent ball control, first touch and vision on several occasions throughout the half to play the role of playmaker and create opportunities for the Spitfires. In the 19 th minute, a looping through ball from right back Warren Goodhind saw Jamie Slabber get into a good position early to pick up on the pass to the right of goal, where the former Havant man lofted a neat effort over the goalkeeper which dipped agonisingly over the cross bar. At the opposite end, Bashley forced their first corner of the game with ex-Eastleigh...

SAINTS have been given a word of warning ahead of their pre-season friendly at Eastleigh on Monday, August 2 (7.45). The Spitfires have been acknowledged as "stubborn opposition" by Southampton's npower League One rivals Leyton Orient who needed a late goal to beat them 2-1 in the Joma South West Challenge Cup on Tuesday night. Even without their central defensive pairing of Tom Jordan (dead leg) and new signing Chris Holland (hip), Eastleigh proved a hard nut to crack for the Os, who finished 17th in League One last term. Praising the patience of his Orient side and the tenacity of Blue Square Bet South outfit Eastleigh, Os' boss Russell Slade said: "I was pleased we came back from going behind (to a Richard Graham goal in the 1st minute). "It was a good workout for us in a different way to our matches last week. Eastleigh are very strong and physical. "They sat right deep and we had to break them down - and we did eventually. "It was very i...

Eastleigh have been drawn at home to Bournemouth Poppies in the preliminary round of the E.ON sponsored FA Youth Cup in the week commencing Monday, September 6. If they safely negotiate that hurdle, the young Spitfires would face a local derby at AFC Totton in the first qualifying round later that month. The winners of that tie host Sholing (formerly VT) or Salisbury City in October.

By Wendy Gee - EASTLEIGH boss Ian Baird opted to give his first-teamers a weekend break after two gruelling games in just over 24 hours at the Joma South West Challenge Cup last week. The Spitfires, who beat Truro City 2-1 last Monday night and only lost by the same scoreline to Leyton Orient the following evening, sent a reserve side to Winchester City on Saturday. Only Jamie Brown and young first-team fringe players Freddie Toomer, Lewis Robinson, Joe Maxwell and Alex Easton featured against the Sydenhams Wessex side. "Jamie hasn't played for six months (through injury) so the more games he gets, the better", Baird explained. "But, with the other lads, there was no point flogging a dead horse. "We played three games in four days last week (including last Saturday at AFC Totton) and they trained very hard down in Devon." Eastleigh are expected to send a strong first-team squad down to Bashley tomorrow night, which will almost certainly mean anothe...

Blue Square are delighted to announce our bluesquare.com Stewards’ Cup competition for all clubs within the three Conference divisions.  Our prestigious Glorious Goodwood race will take place at 3.40pm on Saturday 31st July – Live on Channel 4.  To commemorate our new three year deal to sponsor the league we have created a prize fund for clubs centered around this showpiece race. Each club in the Blue Square BET Premier, North and South has been allocated a horse in the race. If your horse wins you will receive a cheque for £2000 plus an additional amount determined by a £100 bet on that horse. So for example a 20/1 winner would yield another £2000 for the lucky team. The random draw took place this morning at the Blue Square offices in London and the horses/clubs are as follows: HORSE - CLUB Genki - Hyde Laddies Poker Too - Chelmsford City Palace Moon - Luton Town Enact - Fleetwood Town Jonny Mudball - AFC Wimbledon Hawkeyethenoo - Grimsby Town Victo...

Non League Paper Fantasy Football

Report by Kevin Dixon Starting Line up: 1. Gareth Barfoot, 2. Warren Goodhind, 3. Brett Poate, 4. Jamie Brown, 5. Danny Smith, 6. Ross Bottomley, 7. Chris Mason, 8. Jamie Slabber, 9. Staforde Palmer, 10. Richard Gillespie, 11. Richard Graham. Subs: 12. Lewis Robinson, 13. Freddie Toomer, 14. Joe Collins, 15. Alex Easton, 16. Joe Maxwell. Tom Jordan and Chris Holland did not feature due to a 'dead leg' and 'hip problem' respectively. Joe Collins replaced Palmer and Joe Maxwell came on for Brown during the second half. An excellent workout for the lads who showed a tremendous work ethic against League 1 side Leyton Orient. The winning goal came late in the game, courtesy of a linesman with "a twitch" (his words), when he put his flag up then down for offside. We have made a doctors appointment for him, as a twitch as bad as that requires attention! It was a game where the fitness and stamina of the guys shone through, and although Orient had qu...

By Wendy Gee - IAN Baird has been granted his wish of adding a fourth striker to his Eastleigh squad. The Spitfires' boss has had the go-ahead to sign Staforde Palmer, whose loan spell from Hayes & Yeading last season was cut short by injury. The 22-year-old had a bright start to his Eastleigh career, scoring in his first two games for the Blue Square Bet South club. But he was carried off with knee ligament damage in mid-February's fateful third appearance at Weston-Super-Mare, ruling him out for the rest of the season. Despite missing a penalty, Palmer impressed on his Eastleigh comeback at AFC Totton on Saturday after rejoining the squad for training this summer. But speaking after the 1-0 friendly defeat, Baird said he had been informed by the club that the budget wouldn't stretch to signing him. All that changed a matter of hours later, however, with news that Palmer had been offered a non-contract deal. "I had a meeting with (director of football) D...

Eastleigh 2 Truro City 1 Report by Kevin Dixon The Spitfires' opening game of the Joma South West Challenge saw Eastleigh recover from going a goal down in the first two minutes to record a victory. Goals came from Jamie Slabber (penalty) and Staforde Palmer in the second half to see Ian Baird's side home. The game proved to be another very useful workout against a side who have high hopes of getting into the Conference South. Starting Line up: 1. Nathan Thompson, 2. Warren Goodhind, 3. Brett Poate, 4. Jamie Brown, 5. Tom Jordan, 6. Chris Holland, 7. Richard Graham, 8. Danny Smith, 9. Jamie Slabber, 10. Richard Gillespie, 11. Joe Collins. Substitutions: Ross Bottomley (on at half time for Warren Goodhind), Chris Mason (on at half time for Joe Collins), Staforde Palmer (on after 55mins for Jamie Slabber), Danny Smith went to right back and Ross played in midfield with Jamie Brown. Staforde went up top with Richard Gillespie. Not used: Joe Maxwell, Alex Easton, L...

By Wendy Gee - IAN Baird's hopes of boosting Eastleigh with another couple of summer signings have been dashed. The Sptifires boss had hoped to add striker Staforde Palmer and left-sided defender/midfielder Toby Little, both from Hayes & Yeading, to his injury-hit squad, but has been told there is no more money available. Baird, leads his side to north Devon today to face Truro City (tonight) and Leyton Orient (tomorrow) in the Joma South West Challenge Trophy. But with Shaun McAuley, Peter Adeniyi, Anthony Riviere and goalkeeper Jason Matthews all out injured he is reduced to just ten fit senior players plus young guns Joe Maxwell, Chris Mason, Lewis Robinson and Alex Easton. "We're in the same predicament as we were at the end of last season," said Baird, who saw injuries destroy the Spitfires' Blue Square South play-off dreams. One of the key losses was frontman Palmer, who was on loan from Hayes & Yeading at the time and has now returned to Eas...

Radio Spitfire have launched a revamped web site which can be found here: http://www.radio-spitfire.talktalk.net/index.html Tonight you can listen to Ian Baird's post match reaction to the AFC Totton friendly, as well as player interviews with summer signings Chris Holland, Jamie Slabber and Richard Graham.

AFC TOTTON v EASTLEIGH SATURDAY 17th JULY 2010 Pre-Season Friendly Report by Jamie Montigue  Match pictures Eastleigh’s pre-season preparations got underway this afternoon with their first friendly ahead of the new campaign. The Spitfires took on Stuart Ritchie’s AFC Totton at Testwood Park. With a whole host of first team players either injured or unavailable including: Jason Matthews, Anthony Riviere, Peter Adeniyi, Richard Gillespie, Jamie Slabber, Shaun McAuley, Brett Poate and Warren Goodhind; Ian Baird had little choice but to field a youthful starting eleven. There were a handful of familiar/experienced players in action however, such as captain Tom Jordan at centre half who was partnered by summer signing Chris Holland at the back. Richard Graham, 30-year-old winger who signed for the Spitfires only this week following his release from Grays Athletic, also made his debut for Eastleigh. Meanwhile striker Staforde Palmer, who joined the club in February on loa...

Premier League commits £6m of financial support to the Football Conference - New Football Conference club development fund to be launched The Premier League today announced a solidarity package with The Football Conference worth £6m over the next three seasons. Following the £1m payment made to the Football Conference in 2009/10 the Premier League has decided to provide funding for seasons 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2012/13 that will support all Football Conference clubs. The funding will be split into general payments made to all 68 Conference clubs and a separate club development fund which any Conference club can apply to for specific projects. The funding will be structured in the following way: - £1.2m per season provided as funds to support all Football Conference clubs; - £800,000 per season committed to a new club development fund to which all Conference clubs can apply; Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, said: “The Premier League and our member club...

By Wendy Gee - EASTLEIGH have juggled their finances to sign a replacement for departed winger Tony Taggart. Manager Ian Baird has agreed a deal with former QPR, Barnet and Dagenham & Redbridge wideman Richard Graham following his release from Grays Athletic. Born in Newry, Northern Ireland, 30-year-old Graham began his career in QPR's youth ranks and made two first-team appearances for the west Londoners. After spells with Chesham, Billericay and Kettering he played nearly 100 games for Barnet, helping them back into the Football League. He spent two years at Dagenham & Redbridge, including a loan spell back at Kettering, before signing for Grays last summer. Baird said: "Richard's been training with us for a couple of weeks and has done very well. "We needed to replace Tony Taggart and he'll be a more than able replacement. "He's got a good pedigree, having played the majority of his football in the Conference and Football Le...

While Ian Baird's trusty right-hand man Matt Gray will continue as head coach next season, another member of Baird's coaching team has left the club. Goalkeeper Gareth Howells has moved on and Baird is toying with the idea of asking experienced first-team No1 Jason Matthews to replace him as goalkeeping coach. Along with Baird and Gray, Howells - brother of ex-Saint David - moved to Eastleigh in October 2007 from Blue Square Bet South rivals Havant & Waterlooville, initially combining coaching with the role of goalkeeping No2. But, as Baird explained, the 40-year-old former Tottenham, Torquay, Swindon and Leyton Orient keeper was finding life too hectic. "Gareth was doing personal goalkeeping coaching on Wednesday evenings and I think the whole travellling thing was getting on top of him a bit. He didn't have time to fit it all in," said the Eastleigh boss. "We've got young Freddie Toomer training with us as back-up to Jason and ideally we'd ...

SELF-CONFESSED 'old school' manager Ian Baird has turned to one of the younger generation to get his Eastleigh side fit for the new Blue Square Bet South campaign.   Former Hamble ASSC favourite Louis Langdown has joined the Spitfires for pre-season as a fitness/strengthening coach, with Baird keen to see if a fresh approach to training can bring something extra out of his players, writes WENDY GEE . Langdown comes with good qualifications having previously worked as head of strength and conditioning at Championship side Crystal Palace.   An associate lecturer in sports science at Southampton Solent University, he led the Team Solent football team to the Southampton Senior Cup final at St. Mary's in April. But it was through another sport, boxing, that Baird first got to know him earlier this year. The Eastleigh boss spent many a long hour training at the Millbank Gym in Northam in preparation for a white collar boxing bout to raise money for Saints veterans' annua...

The following players have registered for Eastleigh as Blue Square Bet South players for the coming season: Goalkeepers: Jason Matthews, Freddie Toomer Defenders: Warren Goodhind, Lewis Robinson, Tom Jordan, Chris Holland, Brett Poate, Ross Bottomley Midfielders: Anthony Riviere, Danny Smith, Peter Adeniyi, Shaun McAuley, Chris Mason Strikers: Jamie Brown, Jamie Slabber, Richard Gillespie, Joe Maxwell, Alex Easton This is not extensive, and there may be additions/deletions before the season commences.

Eastleigh's injury problems have already begun - and the pre-season friendly campaign hasn't even started. Goalkeeper Jason Matthews (groin) and midfielder Peter Adeniyi (knee) are still carrying problems from last season, while winger Shaun McAuley has broken a leg while out running. "Shaun was jogging and he slipped up on the side of the road," explained Spitfires boss Ian Baird. "It's not a bad break, it's a hairline fracture, but it's not a good start to pre-season." Matthews is awaiting the results of a scan on a groin problem that has dogged him for the past couple of years, while Adeniyi - included in the team-of-the-year as voted by Blue Square Bet South managers - is concerned that his knee is playing up again. "We thought Peter would be okay after a summer break, but it's reared it's ugly head again," said Baird. "We don't know what it is and the only way we'll find out is with a scan." Despite his l...

Eastleigh today announced that one of their pre-season friendlies has been postponed. A statement on the club messageboard from Director of Football Dave Malone read as follows: "Sorry to inform you that the game scheduled for Monday 12th July, against a Portsmouth XI has been cancelled by PFC.   "We are told that they do not have enough players available to play us, which makes it impossible for them to fulfill the fixture. "We are hopeful of re-arranging the game, during the pre-season period. More news when applicable."

Eastleigh kick off their Blue Square Bet South 2010/11 campaign with a home game against Bishops Stortford on Saturday 14th August. The opening day fixtures in full are as follows: Basingstoke Town v Chelmsford City Braintree Town v Farnborough Bromley v Dorchester Town Dartford v Havant & Waterlooville Eastleigh v Bishops Stortford Ebbsfleet United v Maidenhead United Staines Town v Lewes Thurrock v St. Albans City Welling United v Hampton & Richmond Borough Weston-super-Mare v Boreham Wood Woking v Dover Athletic Eastleigh's full schedule of fixtures for the coming season is shown below.