JAMES Pullen is happy to have made Eastleigh his latest club - even though he lives in Essex!

The 24-year-old former Ipswich Town shot-stopper made an impressive debut for Eastleigh last weekend.

He managed to keep what was only the club's second league clean sheet of the season as they defeated table-topping Histon 1-0 in front of a 707-strong crowd at the Silverlake Stadium.

He retains his place in manager Paul Doswell's unchanged side for tomorrow's trip to Farnborough. Though the north Hampshire club are bottom of the Conference South, that's only due to the fact they had 10 points deducted due to going into administration.

Barring that deduction, they would be above Eastleigh in the table.

Pullen has signed for Eastleigh after becoming disenchanted with life at London club Fisher. He had only moved there in 2005 after spells with Peterborough, Dagenham, Heybridge, Hornchurch and Gravesend & Northfleet since leaving Ipswich in 2003!

Pullen, pictured, was alerted to Eastleigh's need for a goalkeeper by Spitfires midfielder Steve West, who played with him at Fisher. Along with former West Ham trainee Bertie Brayley, the three Essex-based lads all travel down twice a week for training as well as matchdays. "I live in Brentwood so it takes a couple of hours to get to training," he said. "It's not too bad - one of us drives on a Tuesday, one on a Thursday and one on a Saturday.

"For training we leave at about 3.30pm and we get home at around 11pm, half 11 at the latest.

"Eastleigh is an ambitious club. There's a lot of talent there and we shouldn't be where we are in the table."