'Battering Ram' Brown back where he belongs

By Wendy Gee -

JAMIE BROWN is relieved to be back at Eastleigh - even though he is having to bide his time on the bench.

The braveheart target man recently returned to the Spitfires ranks after a short spell playing Wessex football with Winchester City and has vowed to be around for as long as the Blue Square South promotion hopefuls want him.

All he needs now to make his happy homecoming complete is to get his name on the Spitfires' scoresheet.

"As a striker you need goals. I do try, but all the time you're not getting them, you think you're never going to score," said Brown.

In fairness to the 29-year-old, he has never been a prolific scorer.

And this season his task has been all the tougher given that he has only made eight league and cup starts and ten sub appearances for Ian Baird's Silverlake side.

He netted four times in 11 Wessex outings for Winchester, but that wasn't good enough for owner Paul McCarthy whose public criticism of Brown's strike rate prompted a parting of ways last month.

Looking back on his time with City, Brown enjoyed himself off the field more than on it.

"I was quite close to senior players like Gary Fulker and Martin Beck and, like I said to them, if I hadn't got on with the lads as well as I did I'd have left," he said.

"Because they're such a good bunch it made it easier for me, but every time I was going home feeling I wasn't performing as I should do and beating myself up about it.

"I'm probably the world's worst critic.

"When I left Eastleigh to go into the Wessex League I didn't realise there'd be such a difference.

"That's no disrespect to Wessex footballers. There are definitely lads there who can play at this level and some of them must have looked at me and thought: 'How have you ever played for Eastleigh? I could do a better job than you.'

"But it's a completely different game in the Conference South.

"It's not so much about strength, it's how you get your body in.

"I'm not the strongest person, but I know how to get my body in. But every time I did it in the Wessex League I'd have a foul given against me.

"When the chance came to come back to Eastleigh, I jumped at it."

Brown was on the brink of returning to his old club Dorchester Town when the Spitfires intervened.

"It was an eleventh hour thing," he said. "I'd sorted out wages and everything with Dorchester.

"But then I spoke to (Eastleigh director of football) Dave Malone and he assured me everything was good here.

"As long as Eastleigh want me, this is where I want to be.

"I spoke to Ashley Vickers (manager) and Shaun Hearn (chairman) down at Dorchester and they still want me next year - at least that's what they said at the time! - and I'll look at my options and stuff.

"Whatever happens I want to play at this level.

"Some people think I'm finished, but I've got too much to give to pack it in.

"I don't mind being a battering ram until I can't walk any more.

"I turn 30 in July and sometimes I feel 35, but this is the fittest I've been in a long time."

Brown who lives just a mile down the road to the Silverlake, will marry girlfriend Sarah on June 3.

He is off to Las Vegas for his stag do in May but, such is his faith in Eastleigh's promotion potential, that he has booked it for after the play-off final.