Wyvern League withdrawal

It is with regret that Eastleigh Football Club has decided to pull out of the Wyvern League. We will remain in the Surburban League as it is considered a much higher standard of football.

This was a difficult decision as there are some advantages in competing in the Wyvern League such as minimal travelling and providing young players experience playing against older opponents. However, after careful consideration and consultation with Ian Baird, Dan Wright and the relevant coaches, it was agreed unanimously as a working group that we should take a different approach to developing our younger talented players.

This approach includes putting some of our most talented players on contract and in some cases loaning them out to local Southern League clubs to enable them to gain experience playing against older and better players at a higher level. By doing this we are bridging the significant gap between Conference South and reserve team football.

We have already signed up several youngsters on contract with more to follow and we will announce details to our supporters in due course. We appreciate this decision will disappoint some people but this is another component of change the club need to go through for the long term future and stability of the club.

Whilst the first team will always remain the priority, we must ensure the support structure is robust and in the long term, produce home grown players.