Reaching for the Sky Vince Taylor reports on the steady transformation of Eastleigh ’ s Ten Acres
Eastleigh became national news in January 2024 , when they were drawn at home to play Manchester United in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup . First , though , they had to defeat Newport County in a Third Round replay , and in front of a record Eastleigh crowd of 5,075 they sadly came up short , losing 3-1 to their League Two opponents . Here we take a look at a venue that was just one match away from hosting one of the most famous clubs in the world .
Anyone visiting Eastleigh ’ s Ten Acres ground at the beginning of the current century would have been met with a neat , but run of the mill Wessex League venue , whose facilities consisted of a small stand with wooden forms for seats , a standard set of floodlights and a timber clubhouse in one corner . Though an obviously well looked after club , which possessed a hardworking band of volunteers to keep things going , there was nothing to suggest that within the next couple of decades they would be playing off for a place in the Football League on two occasions , or that humble Ten Acres would have expanded into a 5,000 capacity stadium , with 3,210 seats and high end hospitality facilities . What is more , the few dozen diehards that used to watch Eastleigh slug it out in the Wessex League , could have little guessed that crowds would swell to an average of around 2,000 per match . It is true that Eastleigh have been fortunate that outside investors have seen fit to plough serious money into the club and its ground , but the Eastleigh public has played its part too , turning up in large numbers to watch a club with no tradition of attracting big crowds .
Hundreds , if not thousands , of enthusiastic new clubs emerged in the immediate post WWII years , with Swaythling Athletic ( which was Eastleigh ’ s original name ) being one of several that formed in the Eastleigh / Southampton area . Playing first at Southampton Common , they then moved to Westfield in Walnut Avenue , Swaythling . Located a short distance from the Briggs Motor Bodies Plant ( where Hampshire League side Briggs Social had their own sports ground ), dressing room facilities at Walnut Avenue were sparse , so a move to a new ground at Ten Acres in Stoneham Lane in 1957 , which was as spacious the name would suggest , was a welcome development . Members of the Hampshire League since 1950 , Swaythling erected a wooden clubhouse at their new home , the building including dressing rooms and a veranda covered area that ran along the side of the pitch . In 1971 , the orientation of the pitch was turned round and a metal framed stand was in-
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