SOUTHERN League hopefuls Eastleigh are on the verge of opening their Ten Acres doors to another ex-Saint.

The ambitious Jewson Wessex League champions are on the trail of 23-year-old striker Shayne Bradley, who is out of contract with Chesterfield Town.

The Gloucestershire-born former England schoolboy signed for Southampton in January 1998 after coming through the trainee ranks.

Despite making a big impression in the reserves, his first-team opportunities were restricted to just four substitute appearances and he was loaned to Swindon and Exeter in 1999 before joining Mansfield Town for £100,000 in the summer of 2000.

He moved to Chesterfield at Christmas-time but went over on his ankle and has struggled for the rest of the season with the Spireites.

With promotion to the Dr Martens Eastern Division on the cards for Eastleigh, manager Paul Doswell wants a third quality striker in the fold along with another former Saint, Nicky Banger, and 21-year-old Robbie Matthews.

Bradley knows Eastleigh's growing ex-Dell contigent well and is good friends with player/assistant manager David Hughes, Phil Warner and Christer Warren.

Doswell confirmed: "Shayne's having a scan on his ankle on Monday and, assuming the specialist says it will be okay, he's going to come and have a chat with us about signing.

"He was a very highly-rated young player at The Dell, but never quite got up to the next level. At our standard he'll be outstanding."

Doswell added: "Since David Laws went back to Weymouth, we've tended to switch people like Martin Beck and Darran Colvin up front, if needed, because we've not had another specialist striker available.

"But in the Southern League we're going to need three good strikers for the two positions. In an ideal world I'd like four, but we can't stretch to that."

Skipper Danny Woods is back in training having missed the last month of the season with a leg injury and Doswell has his fingers crossed that he will at least make the bench for Monday's Jewson Wessex League Cup final against Totton at AFC Newbury (3pm).

Banger is away on a coaching course, but Colvin (knee) and Chris White (hamstring) are ready to rejoin the squad after injury.

Just two clubs - Wimborne (twice) and Andover - have done the Wessex league and cup double and Eastleigh would love to become the third.

Doswell said: "We've done it the hard way beating Wimborne and Lymington on the way through and the boys would love to do the double. When we lost to Totton 2-0 in the league recently, there were one or two comments made and I don't forget things like that. It's just strengthened my resolve to win it."