Hundreds of children get chance to play on Eastleigh's pitch

Families across Eastleigh have travelled down to the Silverlake Stadium on Stoneham Lane for youth tournament held across the weekend.  

The tournament has given around 620 children from across the Eastleigh area the chance to play a match on a National League pitch while the Eastleigh FC team are off season.

(Image: NQ) Scholarship coach and community officer, Josh Nace, 22, has been the master mind behind the project and said it had been a huge success.

Josh said: “The youth tournaments has been a great success and I’m really proud of what we have been able to achieve here.

“This is the first time we have done a youth tournament so I’m really pleased it was such a big hit with the community.

“Its been brilliant to see people that have not been to the club before engaging with us – we wanted bring as many kids from the area to the stadium as possible.

“What better way to do that than to have these children play on the first team pitch.”

READ MORE: Crafty Cakes closes its doors for last time after 35 years

The weekend saw 62 teams across the ages of 9 to 12 face off against teams in their respective age groups.

Scholarship coach and community officer, Josh Nace (Image: NQ) The scholarship coach said that the weekend had been such a success that the club will look to add more age groups to the event next year.

Josh’s role at the club as community officer also means he works with those living in Eastleigh in different ways such as giving talks on racism in schools or running after school clubs.

He added: “For me, I’m driven by providing local kids with a new opportunity they might not have had access to before, helping them to grow as a person and learn some new skills.

“We have also run holiday courses, worked with our local food bank and even do free girls football on a Friday night.”