EASTLEIGH Football Club have a chief executive who is a self-confessed football nut and has been “all-consumed” by the project that is unfolding at the Silverlake Stadium.

Mark Jewell joined the Spitfires in February 2012 as their commercial manager and worked his way up to be the club’s chief, becoming owner Stewart Donald’s right-hand man on Stoneham Lane, writes Peter Howard.

On arrival at the club, the Oxford-based businessman promised himself that he would not become emotionally connected with the Spitfires and reserve his fandom for the club he’s supported since he was young — QPR.

However, winning the Conference South in 2013/14 and getting to within a game of a Wembley play-off final in their first season in the Conference top-fight (now the National League) last term, Jewell has found himself swept away.

Daily Echo: Picture from the Skrill Conference South match in which Eastleigh beat Basingstoke Town and became champions.

Above: Eastleigh win the Skrill South in 2013/14.

After 18 months in the job he was finding it hard not to just have a business attachment to Eastleigh and, if the penny hadn’t dropped already, things took a further turn on a trip north as manager Richard Hill’s side built momentum for an incredible fourth place finish in the Vanarama Conference.

“I remember in Gateshead, I was jumping up and down, shouting,” Jewell explained.

“I had Brian Barwick, the new chairman of the National League, sat behind me and some dignitaries.

“When I jumped out my seat and punched the air, I thought I’d better sit down and behave myself.

“You can easily let your emotions runaway with you, but you’ve got to be able to switch off the fan-like thoughts.

“Sometimes you have to make decisions that a fan would do in a different way, but you’ve got to make business decisions.

“You’ve got to balance the books. Sometimes you have to make the tough calls.

“I always said ‘I’m never going to be a fan (of Eastleigh) because I’m a QPR fan’.

“I promised myself that it’s just going to be a business.

“Within 18 months, though, I was hooked.

“I wake up in the middle of the night and I’m thinking about Eastleigh.

“It’s weird. I’m well adsorbed, it’s all-consuming.

“You just end up like a fan and sometimes you have to quell those emotions.”

Jewell is now busy preparing for another season and admits he’s at full tilt, making sure Eastleigh are as healthy off-field as possible.

“I’m probably working harder now at 45 than I did when I was 25,” Jewell smiled. “It’s been a huge learning curve for me.

“It’s a new challenge for me, but it’s good.”