Eastleigh chairman Stewart Donald will not rest until the Spitfires are a Football League club.

Even though his club have just won the Skrill Conference South title, the hard work that started as soon as he arrived at the Silverlake Stadium in late 2011 will not cease.

Donald, head of Bridle Insurance, has bankrolled Eastleigh’s promotion into the top level of English non league football – 11 years after they won the Wessex League title.

He is already preparing the next step in the Spitfires’ rise.

“We’ve not got promoted on the assumption we’re going in to make the numbers up,” he said.

“We’re keen to compete and we think we’ll able to do that.

“We’ll obviously need to strengthen the squad; it’s a bigger season in the sense that there are more games, so you need more numbers to cope.

“We’ve already had the initial conversations on our next steps.

“There’s been a conversation on whether we consolidate or we try and push on upwards.

“I don’t know if it’s a long-term or short-term aim to climb higher.

“Without doubt the view when we came in was that we could get the team in the Football League, and that’s still the objective. This is the result of two years hard work that’s paid off brilliantly, but it doesn’t stop here.”

  •  Full in-depth interview with Stewart Donald in this weekend’s Sports Pink.