ONE of the most important men in new Eastleigh signing Vince Harper’s career, Brian Tinnion, has told fans what to expect of the new man, insisting: “Vincent is an attacking athletic full-back, I think he will be a really good player.”

The 20-year-old signed for Ben Strevens’ Spitfires after Harper and the club activated a seven-day notice at Chippenham, allowing the player to move to the Silverlake Stadium despite only joining weeks ago.

The young full-back spent his youth career developing in the South West with Bristol City, alongside his brother Ash, before eventually being released this summer.

Tinnion, 53, has managed the Robins’ youth for almost a decade in various roles, including loan manager and now player pathway manager – and organised Harper’s loan spells at Gloucester City, Weston Super-Mare and Bath City.

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The City legend briefed the Daily Echo for fans to get to know their new man, telling us: “Vincent is an attacking athletic full-back.

“Unfortunately for him here we didn’t have a pathway with Cam Pring, George Nurse at the time and Jay Dasilva all around 21/22 years of age.

“We didn’t want to keep Vincent here just for the sake of keeping him without a pathway, but he’s got a great opportunity at a football club that develops young players really well, hence why we’ve sent Joe Low there.

“Hopefully he can get some more game time and keep stepping up the leagues, which is what we always hope for players who leave here, that they go on and have really good careers. We have a real closeness here and we want them to succeed when they leave here.”

Daily Echo: Bristol City's Brian Tinnion is a club legend with over 550 first-team appearances (Pic: PA)Bristol City's Brian Tinnion is a club legend with over 550 first-team appearances (Pic: PA)

Eastleigh supporters will be relieved to hear of the youngsters injury and fitness record too.

Tinnion revealed: “I can’t remember Vincent missing many games at all, in fact I can’t remember him being injured.

“He was always training, always playing the games, there has never been an issue with Vince. He’s a good, athletic full-back and I think he will be a really good player for them.”

Harper had played three games at National League South level this season for Chippenham, before making the permanent switch to the Spitfires – who he had impressed during a pre-season match in August to put himself on the club’s radar.

It will be Harper’s toughest test yet on paper, having only played games in divisions below before this deal, but back-up and some competition was supremely needed to current left-back Michael Kelly.

Tinnion tries to get all of his youngsters loan moves that increase in increments of difficulty, working their way up the leagues, but reveals it’s not always that simple.

He added: “Yeah he did well in his loan spells, we just couldn’t get him that last one into the Football League, there was no one sort of taking him into League Two perhaps where he needed to go.

“That was a tough one for him to take, he trained with Newport County for a week with a view of going on loan there but it didn’t quite happen.

“But he’s stepped up another level now into the National League, hopefully he can go there, do really well and step up again.”

Harper could make his Spitfires debut when they travel to Barnet tomorrow, Saturday 11 September, in search of their first National League win of the season.