ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE. SATURDAY, 25th OCTOBER 2025.

Same Old Story at Eastleigh

Morecambe made history today when they travelled to Hampshire to face Eastleigh FC for the very first time ever. This is what I wrote about this afternoon’s opponents earlier in the season in my review of the National League:

Eastleigh’s Silverlake Stadium can be found 272 miles south from the Mazuma Mobile Stadium and just five miles north of central Southampton in Hampshire on the south coast of England. The ground is not actually in Eastleigh but can be found just over two miles south in a suburb of Southampton called Swaythling and it was by this name that the club was initially known. It was re-christened Eastleigh in 1980 for reasons I cannot explain. Swaythling is almost five miles from Woolson – by the mouth of the River Itchen and a stone’s throw from the sea. On the river could once be found the site of Supermarine – a historic and famous aircraft manufacturing company. Supermarine’s whole focus during the 1920s and 1930s was to create seaplanes capable of winning the prestigious Schneider Trophy in the face of opposition from American and European competitors. In 1931, the Supermarine S6B seaplane won the Trophy outright for Britain and became the prototype of the most famous RAF fighter of World War Two, the Supermarine Spitfire – after which the club is now named, also for reasons I can’t explain: its links with both Eastleigh and Supermarine seem tenuous in the extreme other than the Spitfire’s Test Flights were made from nearby Eastleigh Aerodrome, now known as Southampton Airport. Oh – and they once had a Mascot called Sammy the Spitfire. (In reality, Sammy was actually a dog…)

Whatever, the original club was founded by a group of friends in the Fleming Arms in Swaythling on May 22nd 1946 and it initially played on Southampton Common or a ground at Walnut Avenue in Swaythling, depending on which source you want to believe. It moved to its current ground – then known as Ten Acres – during 1957. Not a lot happened from then until the club was promoted to the Conference South in 2005 and they stayed there until 2014 when they won the Play-Offs to earn a place in the Football Conference proper. They started writing national headlines in 2015 when they beat Lincoln City in the FA Cup and again a year later when they beat EFL Bristol Rovers and then fellow National Leaguers Macclesfield, who they walloped 4-0 in a game that was televised live. Three years later – after disposing of several other EFL clubs – they won 1-3 at Swindon Town in another game which was shown live by the BBC.

They have not really hit the headlines much in recent times but last season, they finished lucky thirteenth in the National League: their tenth consecutive season at this level.

Morecambe and Eastleigh’s paths have never crossed in the past. A few players have performed for both Eastleigh and Morecambe, most notably Champion Diver JJ McKiernan and one of the worst signings our club has ever made: Wes McDonald.

The first meeting between the two clubs is scheduled to be on Saturday, 25th October 2025 in Hampshire. Eastleigh will then visit Morecambe on Saturday, 21st February 2026.

The Spitfires started today’s game in twelfth place in the National League table on the back of just one defeat and two wins in their last six league games. Last time out – at home on Tuesday night – they came from behind to draw against Scunthorpe United, 1-1 after a phenomenal back-heeled finish by Ciaran McGuckin following tremendous approach play by Kieron Evans. They are still in the FA Cup as well: having beaten Hampton & Richmond of the National League South away 0-2, they will host League Two leaders Walsall at the Silverlake Stadium on November 1st. Manager Scott Bartlett – who has been in charge for only a month – summed-up what he expected from a team playing for him after the draw against Scunny and concentrated on the role of his substitutes:

“I thought they were brilliant. They’ve got to be because that’s what my teams are about:  run yourself into the ground for 60; 65 minutes; run off; pat your mate on the back and on you go and try and get us something.“

As far as today’s game is concerned, he added:

“At the moment, we are in a place where we are really mindful of the opposition and we need to find ways to combat their strengths and maybe expose their weaknesses if we can find any. Really, we are still in a place where we are focusing very much on ourselves and trying to be the best version of us.”

Meanwhile, Morecambe and its beleaguered Manager Ashvir Singh Johal were busy turning the world on its head last Tuesday. Ash has been telling us for ages that his new team of late signings would click. And they did. He told us they are a good side. They are. He promised us lots of goals. They duly delivered. The Shrimps won 0-4 against Boston United last Tuesday in a performance of sheer class. The defence played well; the midfield – with Jake Cain having an exceptional match – were irresistible and up-front both Joe Nuttall and Admiral Muskwe looked like they might have it in them to successfully lead the line. One swallow doesn’t make a summer of course and it would be up to the team to replicate Tuesday night’s effort and commitment here today to push them further up the table from the twenty-third place they currently occupy. This is what Ash had to say prior to the match:

“Eastleigh are a good team; they create chances; they attack with speed. With the way the team’s being playing in the last few weeks, they win a lot of the games and they are very physical. So we know it’s going to be a difficult game like the ones we’ve had in the last few weeks. So it’s up to us now to match that level and try and win the game.”

Eastleigh named Jake Taylor as their Skipper today, as usual. This is not the one who used to play for us: he is now a Truro City player after a career truncated by injuries.

Ash started with the same starting eleven who performed so well against Boston. Ludwig Francillette – signed since I wrote the above pen picture of Eastleigh – lined-up against his previous club.

The sun shone and it was quite warm with little wind in Hampshire as the game kicked-off. But the clouds soon gathered and by twenty minutes in, it was raining torrentially and the wind had noticeably strengthened.

Things were fairly even initially and Jack Nolan had the first effort of the game when his shot from distance was easily saved by home Custodian Nick Townsend after seven minutes. A couple of minutes later, Eastleigh’s scorer from Tuesday – Ciaran McGuckin (who had been promoted to the First Eleven today) took another shot from about fifteen yards which missed the target after being played-in by Richard Brindley. There was a bit of a scare after almost half an hour for the home team when Townsend was slow to react to a cross from the right by Lewis Payne and Gwion Edwards almost embarrassed him by pinching the ball but the goalkeeper got away with it. Morecambe won the first corner of the contest after 24 minutes only to see the Spitfires’ goalkeeper catch the ball confidently. With almost half an hour played, McGuckin came close for the hosts when he volleyed a pass from Josh Lundstram narrowly over the bar. Morecambe won the second corner of the match after 36 minutes and after the Spitfires struggled to clear it, Ludwig Francillette headed Nolan’s cross over the bar when the ball was re-cycled to the Shrimps’ right. Forty minutes were on the clock when Joe Nuttall – who had headed the ball over the bar earlier on – had another shot easily saved by Townsend. But Eastleigh should have taken the lead after 43 minutes when Miguel Azeez slipped in the wet conditions and lost the ball to McGuckin, who struck the ball past a stranded Jamal Blackman only for Maldini Calcurri to appear from nowhere and miraculously clear the shot for Eastleigh’s first corner of the game. So a pretty forgettable match so far ended goal-less at half time. Morecambe should have been punished for Azeez’s mistake but the Shrimps looked fairly solid most of the time and looked fairly fluent going forward.

Morecambe had the first decent attempt on goal when Elijah Dixon-Bonner only just missed the target with an effort with just three minutes of the re-start played. There was a major blow for the visitors when Skipper Gwion Edwards limped-off the field after 48 minutes to be replaced by Rolando Aarons. Payne then immediately conceded a free-kick for which he was booked on the edge of the Shrimps’ area and Lloyd Humphries fairly hammered the dead ball straight into the net with Blackman rooted to his spot to put the hosts one goal to the good.

The Shrimps’ reaction to adversity has been pretty dire so far this season so everyone would be hoping that the lads’ heads didn’t drop after conceding this afternoon. But Eastleigh had the next decent chance after just over an hour as both Calcurri and Azeez made errors and Blackman was forced to use his legs to block a strike from Harvey Saunders.

Nolan and Payne combined well after about seventy minutes to set-up a half chance but then lost possession yet again – this time Francillette was guilty – and the former Eastleigh defender celebrated his return to his old stomping ground by then bringing-down McGuckin in the penalty area. The Spitfire forward picked himself up, dusted himself down and scored easily from the spot.

Ash responded with a triple substitution which apparently caused the home goalkeeper to mysteriously have an attack of cramp which stopped the game for a few minutes. Ben Tollitt had a shot blocked and made at least one decent cross before getting on the end of fellow-sub George Thomas’ cross to reduce the arrears in the final minute. Referee Greg Rollason added-on seven minutes at the end during which Francillette could – and should – have atoned for his earlier mistake when meeting a Jake Cain corner unmarked. But he somehow managed to head wide of the target from only four yards out instead. In the meantime, Mo Sangare had taken less than four minutes to enter the Referee’s notebook but he did force Townsend into a decent save in the 78th minute. Tollitt then had the last word of the game for the visitors when he volleyed a half-chance over the bar with only seconds left.

So it was another really disappointing result for Ashvir Singh Johal’s men. As the Spitfires clung-on to their twelfth place – to make things much worse – bottom club Sutton United were winning 0-2 at Wealdstone at half time to leap-frog over us in the mire. The only good news we got today is that the Stones recovered and finally won 3-2 to keep Sutton below us at the very bottom of the National League. Truro were also winning 0-2 at Gateshead at one time but finally had to settle for a 2-2 draw. So Truro are just a point and one position ahead of the Shrimps; Sutton two points behind us, having both played one game more. It’s tight near the bottom of the league and Ash now has over a week to do some concerted work with his players before the next match at Hartlepool on November 4th. This is what he had to say after his team’s latest reverse:

“I’m extremely disappointed with the result. It should have been a draw at the least – at the least today. They’ve had three chances and they’ve scored two goals. If we started the game how we ended it – in terms of our intensity; our speed; creating chances and our attacking – we would’ve scored a lot more goals. I’m really pleased we’ve got nine days until the next game. We’ve got real unity: every single player. We don’t have cliques or groupings: it’s a real one group and I’m really pleased about that. We’ve got a great bunch of lads.”

Eastleigh: 1 Nick Townsend; 2 Richard Brindley (21 Sonnie Davis 86’); 4 Lloyd Humphries; 6 Temi Eweka; 8 Jake Taylor (C); 10 Ciaran McGuckin (7 Kieron Evans 93’); 15 Harvey Saunders; 17 Josh Lundstram; 19 Jack Skinner (3 Jake Vokins 77’); 24 Jordan Cousins; 27 Archie Harris.

Subs not used: 22 Joshua McNamara; 16 Aaron Pierre; 18 Angel Waruih (Y); 40 Barney Stone.

Morecambe:  40 Jamal Blackman; 2 Lewis Payne (Y); 5 Maldini Calcurri; 6 Ludwig Francillette (Y); 7 Gwion Edwards (C) (12 Rolando Aarons 48’); 8 Miguel Azeez; 10 Jake Cain; 15 Ben Williams (20 Mohammed Sangare (Y) 82’); 21 Joe Nuttall (11 Admiral Muskwe 74’); 29 Elijah Dixon-Bonner (32 George Thomas 74’); 36 Jack Nolan (18 Ben Tollitt 74’).

Subs not used: 1 Archie Mair; 24 Yann Songo’o.

Ref: Greg Rollason.

Att: 2,533 (141 from Morecambe.)