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I think they are a good up and coming club and when we visited them it was nice to be treated like humans and be welcomed there. The letter the club received afterwards was a nice touch. The new stand behind the goal was being built still when we were there but would certainly have improved the ground. As regards the wealthy owner it is always easy to refer to other wealthy owners who have gone to smaller clubs and then left them in the lurch and Brucie is right in that respect but there are also those owners who are genuine like our neighbours and to be honest this bloke does seem to be a genuine bloke. It is quite funny to read what Brucie says after the way he looks at us as big time Charlies and criticises us for that yet the way he looks at Eastleigh is no different. I am sure a lot of the time it is jealousy that a club like Eastleigh are able to sign players that most clubs in the Conference dream of. If everybody takes the view that Eastleigh will end up like Rushton and Diamonds or Boston then no teams would really get started. Only have to look at a club like Fleetwood who have left both of us behind now by two divisions.
Good luck to them and I must say that I have enjoyed this season in the Conference where most of the time we have received a very friendly welcome by clubs who have "real fans".

As far as I can remember, TUFC are the first club to have taken all six points off us this season. Great to meet so many Torquay fans in the bar last Saturday. Appreciate the many comments on your forum about EFC and understand those who have less than positive view of our recent success. TUFC had already been members of the Football League for 26 years when we were formed in 1946 and were playing in the Southampton Junior League on the local Common. We made it as far as the County League within a decade but as recently as 1980 were playing in front of as few as 30 people on a Saturday. As SotonGull said the Eastleigh club has come a long way in the last few years. The current and former Directors have worked hard to make the club successful and with new owners we've been able to make the jump into the Conference (national).

The negative comments about money are understandable but many will not know that an large amount of it has been spent on buying the freehold on the Ten Acres site before the new South Stand and covered terraces could be built (they weren't there last season). New turnstiles, sewers for new toilets, new food outlets and raising on-site car parking to 1,000 cars are still works in progress. Gates are up by around 125% over last year helped by a policy of the lowest entry costs in the division.

When we meet next season, we hope much of that work will be complete and that fans will have better experience than this year.

Good luck to you, Torquay.

eastleighfan wrote: When we meet next season, we hope much of that work will be complete and that fans will have better experience than this year.

As the table is looking at present, there's a good chance that we won't meet next season !!!

Hi all. (Yet another) Eastleigh fan here.

Firstly congrats on your win. You didn't see us at our best but that's not to take anything away from Torquay's performance.

In view of the various comments re Eastleigh's emergence through the leagues, I thought I would mention that a book has been published by Paul McNamara, documenting Eastleigh's Conference South Championship win last season and also covering some of the club's previous history. This is available direct from the publishers at the following link: http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=2945 . It's also available online from Waterstones and Smiths.

The book is written not just for Eastleigh supporters but for football supporters everywhere who might be intrigued by the running of a small aspirational club from start to finish of a season. For that to turn out to be a title winning season was a bonus. There are many insights including how the current ownership came about, how the stories of buying success with big wages are mythical and the realities of daily life for non league players, managers and coaches.

If you decide to give it a try I hope you enjoy it. Paul has a blog at the following link which includes his report on Saturday's match: http://mcnamara-sport.tumblr.com/

Had a very nice experience at Eastleigh. Everyone polite (more than can be said of one or two of our fans, but wont go into that) and helpful. Good parking (Free!!) and good banter in the, "welcome all supporters", clubhouse.

A good win for TUFC, which I think in the end we probably deserved. Might have been a different story, though, if the Eastleigh strikers could shoot straight

Thanks for the heads up re. the book, back4more. There is a book that I would like to recommend to you. Its called "Where's Your Caravan" and was written by our now manager, Chris Hargreaves. Its about life in the lower leagues, from a personal as well as professional, perspective.

Enjoy the rest of your season, and good luck to your club.

4126 there today to watch them play Macclesfield, currently they're 4-0 up. So much for brucie's assumptions about them not being a proper club and nothing more than a tinpot outfit.

Did see some of it, in the pub before the Plainmoor Horror Show.

Nothing wrong with the well-worked goal that Eastleigh had ruled out. Just how did our shower beat them recently?

Out of interest, was there a particular reason they had such a good crowd today? Was it an occasion of some sort, as that is not their normal attendance and one imagines it unlikely that they will continue to get that every week.

Eastleigh did have some offer on today, not sure what, think it was to do with the kids. However reading through Eastleigh's forum and then our own, you can see a huge difference, SG is right one club is very much on the up, ours sadly will never return to football league, while it's being run as it is now, with the current manager who is out of his depth.

They've been promoting this game locally for a few weeks now. Lots of offers connected with using their facilities as well as it being a real test of their promotion aspirations. Obviously Saints being away has given a fair few floating fans somewhere to get their football fix as well but it's the overall ambitious nature of the Club that is inspiring people to get involved. I've played there many times for and against them and it's unbelievable how far they've come since I stopped playing. Good luck to them I say, I just wish we had the ambition and vision they seem to have in abundance.

Southampton Gull wrote: Good luck to them I say, I just wish we had the ambition and vision they seem to have in abundance.

I would echo that. Thinking of FC United and how they are a cheap/homely alternative for fans to get a football fix that is affordable, whilst still retaining affection, and perhaps even attendance, at Man Utd games, that is the sort of market Eastleigh, perhaps are, and should be aiming for.

If these smaller clubs could somehow tap into the affections of supporters of the bigger local teams, in the way, perhaps Tranmere Rovers once did for fans of Liverpool and Everton, it is a source of support that could help propel them a little further.

We don't have that really, unless fans of a Plymouth Argyle, riding high a few divisions higher, feeling like patronising us but for Eastleigh, it makes obvious sense.

I remember one of the FC United flags which said something like 'Love enough for two - MUFC/FCUM' and I think that it easier for fns when there is a big club and small club to support.