National League club Eastleigh has announced the departure of Isle of Wight manager Lee Bradbury after just 5 games.
The announcement came after the Spitfires lost 2-0 at Southend United on Friday night. The Hampshire club had been winless in the season to date, drawing 3 and losing 2 of the 5 games they have played.
Yesterday (Monday) – after Lee’s departure – Eastleigh won their 1st game of the season 3-0 against local rivals Aldershot.
Bradbury took over at Eastleigh in February 2022, guiding them to a 9th-place finish in his 1st full season in charge, missing a place in the playoffs by just 4 points.
Lee – a former student at Cowes High School – became the Isle of Wight’s 1st £1,000,000 player when he was transferred from Portsmouth to Manchester City for £3.5m in 1997. Altogether, Lee made over 500 league appearances scoring 92 goals.
The Isle of Wight footballer had previously played for Plessey, Cowes Sports and Pompey before joining Manchester City. Since retiring as a player, Lee has managed AFC Bournemouth, Havant & Waterlooville and Eastbourne Borough. Before his appointment as Eastleigh manager, he was assistant head coach at Crawley Town.
Eastleigh released the following statement:
“Eastleigh Football Club can today confirm that we have terminated the contract of First Team Manager Lee Bradbury and assistant manager Brian Stock with immediate effect.
Article continues below this advertisement “In the interim period, Richard Hill will oversee the first-team squad along with Jason Bristow.
“A full recruitment process will be undertaken following today’s decision to appoint a new management team.
“We would like to thank Lee and Brian for their commitment to the club during their year and a half tenure at Eastleigh FC and we wish them both all the best for the future.”
I remember Plessey FC in the Moreys IW Saturday League, always had loads of quick nippers playing for them, always a decent team, wonder what happened to the club?