Andy Forbes set for Eastleigh return

The club are pleased to announce that we have agreed terms with Andy Forbes, and anticipate that we will conclude the formalities in the next few days.

Andy spent last season at Woking and then Sutton United.

We will be delighted to welcome him back to the Silverlake Stadium.

D.O.B: 28/05/1979
Birth Place: Reading

Previous Clubs:
Sutton United, Woking, Winchester City, Andover, Basingstoke Town, Reading

Position: Forward
Nationality: English

Andy Forbes -
Andy began his career as a trainee for Reading Football Club before playing for Winchester City (where he won the FA Vase) and Andover. Andy made his move to the Silverlake Stadium in August 2004 for an undisclosed fee despite several other clubs in the Football League showing an interest in his talent.

Andy had scored over 350 goals with Andover and Winchester City
prior to joining Eastleigh; and in his first attempt to prove his goalscoring ability outside the Wessex and Hampshire Leagues, Andy proved to be just as lethal in front of goal.

His prolific goalscoring talent helped him to become the top goalscorer for the club in the 2004/2005 season with 23 league strikes. These goals were absolutely essential to the club's promotion to the Conference South.


In the club's first season in the Conference (2005/2006 season), Andy again topped the club's scoring charts with 20 goals from 43 appearances
.

Andy had a terrific start to the season scoring two each against Newport and Sutton, and then towards the end of the season he went on a scoring spree through March and early April 2006 firing in six goals in a short period of time.


In the 2006/2007 season, Forbes' clinical finishing came to light again as Eastleigh's main source of goals saw the striker bag a tremendous hattrick against Weston Super-Mare
.

His goals almost single handedly kept the club up to ensure survival with another season of 20 plus strikes. To score so many in a team that struggled as relegation battlers, is an absolute credit to Forbes who fell second only to Havant's Rocky Baptiste in the Division's goalscoring charts at the end of the 2006/7 season.


When Jason Dodd took over the helm at Eastleigh in December, the former Saint managed to get the very best out of Andy despite operating the club's leading marksmen in a wide right midfield position. The second half of the campaign saw Forbes help himself to no fewer than 15 goals!


Unsurprisingly, Andy Forbes picked up an award at the Presentation Evening, following a further phenomenal season; as Players Player of 2006/7.


Eastleigh's top scorer for three straight seasons, delighted fans by penning a three year deal to commit his future to the club in 2007.


After a slow start to the 2007/8 season by Andy's standards with just two goals from the opening ten games, Forbes came to life once Ian Baird took charge in October 2007.


Immediately, Forbes struck golden form firing 12 goals in 12 games including a fine hat trick against Clevedon Town in the FA Cup, which not only sealed Eastleigh's place in the 4th Qualifying Round for the first time in the club's history, but also earned him the 'Player of the Round' award.


Andy Forbes grabbed his 131st goal in his 234th Eastleigh appearance in the New Years Day 2009 win over Basingstoke Town, but just days after being the match-winning hero once again, Forbes and Eastleigh were dealt a massive hammer blow as the 29-year-old marksman ruptured an Achilles tendon.


Eastleigh's hotshot had been out of luck on the injury front having missed a chunk of first team action in the opening months of the 2008/09 campaign owing to a hernia operation, which in turn led to further woe of a stomach abscess.


Andy made nine league starts after recovering from his summer setbacks and proved his quality and importance time and again, none more so than his spell as an emergency centre half where he played his part in clean sheets at AFC Wimbledon and the famous 2-0 victory over rivals Havant & Waterlooville in November 2008.


In November 2009 Andy was made available for transfer. A little over a month later, in early January 2010, Forbes was taken off the transfer list >>
http://eastleighfc.blogspot.com/2010/01/forbes-off-transfer-list.html

Andy finished the campaign with injury problems and in the close season was released from the club.


Woking quickly stepped in to sign the natural goal-scorer in May 2010, however Forbes finished the 2010/11 campaign at Sutton United where he was re-united with former manager Paul Doswell. Forbes signed off as the club's second highest league and cup scorer with 15 goals in 34 games for Sutton United, helping the U's gain promotion to the Blue Square Bet South as Champions.


Andy amassed an outstanding 143 goals in 263 appearances for Eastleigh in his previous spell with the Spitfires. Welcome back Andy Forbes!


Related links:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Deal sealed with Lawshield

Eastleigh Res. 0-1 Tooting & Mitcham Utd Res.

Richard Hill