Yeates Wants Eastleigh Date To Be The Start Of Things

The popular Irishman spent two assist-filled years at the Silverlake before joining the Coasters this simmer, making the play-offs in his final season in Hampshire.

But with his current employers sitting in the Vanarama National League bottom four, Yeates is adamant Saturday’s live BT Sport meeting will be strictly business.

He is hoping history repeats itself as Fylde look to remove the hand-break on a season so far which has stalled to the surprise of many.

“It’s always good to see some old faces - I still keep in contact with a lot of the boys there, even the ones like Paul McCallum who went to Solihull Moors,” he told us ahead of the teatime game.

“We had a really good team spirit in the group last season. The start that Eastleigh had last year probably helped us get closer which got us up the league.

“There are some great lads there and Ben Strevens who I’ve know a long time. He used to be a player then got the manager’s job and he’s been doing so well.

"It’ll be great to see everyone but when the game starts, it’s an old cliché, but I’m not going to be worried about Eastleigh, I’m only worried about us and getting our season up and running again.

“It’s on BT Sport too," he continued. “You don’t get many chances to be on television so it gives the game an extra edge, hopefully we can show what we’re truly capable of.”

How they need to get up and running. The season which promised so much up to now has been a far cry from the kind of form that helped Dave Challinor’s side to a Wembley Promotion Final date in May, with an FA Trophy final a few weeks after.

A good start was quickly forgotten – their wait for a third win of the season now stands at seven games with their last coming against Ebbsfleet United on August 10.

Yeates has been here before. Last season, Eastleigh were in pretty much the same boat before having their best campaign in years.

But with the cameras in town, he feels it’s a good chance to show the rest of the league that the table can lie, and that AFC Fylde still mean business.

“We’ve got to be honest about it, it’s not started the way we expected. The first three games we had seven points on the board, and it was a good start,” he said.

“But since then, it’s been a bit stop-start. We know as a group that we haven’t got to the level we are capable of. It’s been a frustrating start but with the BT Sport game coming up, hopefully that can kick-start the season.

“Last season at Eastleigh we made the play-offs, but we didn’t have a great start. There’s nothing to be panicking too much about but we want to start winning sooner rather than later to start getting a positive feel about the place.

“On paper we’ve got a lot of good players for this level, but we need to start going out there and showing that. We’ve got a tough four games coming up but a few of them are at home so we’ve got a chance to change things.”

Following their Wembley defeat to Salford City, Dave Challinor was confident of bouncing back straight away and made his ambitions clear to any new additions over the summer.

“When I signed, the club had just gone one game away from getting into the EFL so the ambition was always going to be to go one better this season.”

“But we’ve got to be realistic and know we can’t be looking too far ahead now – we’ve got to focus on each game as it comes and getting the points. There isn’t a huge gap between the top seven and where we are at the moment and we’ve got a game in hand.

“You only need a few back-to-back wins and you soon shoot up the table which I’m confident we will do soon.”