Eastleigh chairman Stewart Donald reveals his £3m cash injection into the club

The Oxfordshire-based businessman, right, was speaking ahead of the Spitfires’ Conference Premier play-off semi final first leg at home to Grimsby tonight.

Donald has won over the hearts of Spitfires fans since his company, Bridle Insurance, arrived on the Stoneham Lane scene in December 2011.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Echo at the time, Donald and co-Bridle director Neil Fox spoke of attracting regular 3,000 crowds to the Silverlake Stadium and delivering League football to the town “as quickly as possible.”

At the time it seemed like mission impossible but, just over three years later, any scepticism has been washed away on a tide of sheer Eastleigh elation.

With two 4,000-plus crowds already achieved this season and another full house expected for tonight’s Vanarama Conference play-off semi-final against Grimsby, the first of those targets is well on its way to fruition.

Unbelievably, so too is the second, albeit that beating Grimsby over two legs is a monumental task in itself, let alone overcoming either Bristol Rovers or Forest Green in the Wembley promotion final.

But the mere fact that Eastleigh locals are daring to dream of League Two football proves that Donald’s ambitious plans for the club were more than just pie-in-the-sky.

“Everyone who buys a club has got a five-year plan, haven’t they?” he said. “And, as with all those things, talk is cheap and the proof is in the pudding.

“When I said three years ago that I wanted to take us into the Football League and build them a stand, the fans must have been saying: ‘Yeah, whatever. Why does this chap from outside the area want to do this?’ “But I’ve put my money where my mouth is and we’ve done remarkably well to turn round a Conference South club who were struggling to stay in the league, a club that had had one budget cut already and were probably going for another.

“We brought in (manager) Richard Hill and he and the team have worked extremely hard on the field while everyone else has been working extremely hard off it.

“There’s no point having one thing without the other.”

Striking that happy medium of developing team and stadium hand in hand has not come cheap for Donald.

“I’ve put nearly £3 million of my personal funds into the club and will probably need to put in some additional funds, so by the start of next season I will have spent £3 million,” he revealed.

“But the club now runs on a profit, which is mainly down to sponsorship, although bigger gates have also helped.

“It’s cheating a bit because a couple of companies I own sponsor the club massively. But we’re in a position now where the money going into the club comes through the companies I own rather than from my personal money.

“I’ve put in £3 million of my own funds, alongside sponsorship, but the sponsorship is at such a level now that my personal contribution can stop.”

Despite the huge outlay, family man Donald sleeps easy at night, safe in the knowledge that his money is well spent. For all his incredible generosity, he can be penny-pinching when he needs to be.

“I do keep count of how much I spend and could probably tell you down to the nearest 10p,” he smiled.

“The other day I hit the roof because we were giving out free bottles of water which cost us 10p and the players were only drinking half of it. It’s wastage and I’ve now saved the club £500.

“I watch things like that amazingly closely, but only from a value-for-money perspective.

“I know the money that goes into the club is spent well, so I don’t begrudge it.

“It brings people - myself included - a lot of enjoyment.

“People sometimes ask me why I would put so much money into a football club.

“But the way I see it is some people would buy a boat and lose more in depreciation in the first six months.

“By putting money into Eastleigh I’m trying to bring enjoyment to the community and myself, whereas material things tend to depreciate.

“That’s how I square it with myself – and my wife!”