Taggart set for Eastleigh return
By Wendy Gee - 
TONY Taggart could be back flying up and down the right flank for Eastleigh at home to Basingstoke Town in the Blue Square Bet South tomorrow.
The Spitfires are awaiting international clearance to finalise the loan of the 28-year-old winger – just four months after Taggart left the Silverlake Stadium to join Newport County.
With Shaun McAuley and Peter Adeniyi lost to long-term injury, Eastleigh have had frontman Richard Gillespie filling in on the right.
Gillespie, as ever, has put in 100 per cent effort, but manager Ian Baird admitted: “The right has been a problem for us since day one of the season and we need to address it.
“Losing McAuley and Adeniyi means we’ve had to put square pegs in round holes.”
Some would argue that Taggart should never have been allowed to go in the first place, but Baird said: “There was nothing we could do.
“Taggs was offered full-time football at a Conference National club and he would have been a fool not to take it.
“We couldn’t compete with the deal he was offered there.”
It was Baird who first brought Taggart - affectionately known as "the flying bin man" - to Eastleigh from his old club Havant & Waterlooville in the summer of 2008.
The winger's arrival coincided with the Spitfires' best ever Blue Square Bet South campaign of 2008/09 when they finished third in the league and narrowly missed out on promotion. He top-scored with 15 goals.
Last season was less successful for him, but County boss Dean Holdsworth was quick to snap up his services, giving the former refuse collector the chance to train full-time at his new club.
Taggart, though, carried a three-match suspension with him to south Wales and, with County going so well, he has struggled to break into the side.
"It suits him and it suits us to get Taggs back," said Baird. "We've missed having someone like him in the side."
As of yesterday, Baird was 99 per cent certain the Taggart deal would go through, all being well with international clearance.
Unfortunately for Eastleigh, midfielder Anthony Riviere is nowhere near ready to start a game, despite twice coming off the bench against Braintree and Bognor.
The 31-year-old appeared to be well on the mend after a lengthy spell out with Achilles tendon problems, but Baird revealed: "He's a long, long way away from starting.
"He's been over-compensating for the injury on the other leg and hasn't trained this week. Hopefully he'll be on the bench tomorrow, but it's a slow process. He's hardly played in eight or nine months and we've got to manage him the right way."
Tomorrow sees Baird reunited with one of his former Leeds United team-mates Frank Gray, the manager of Basingstoke Town.
Currently five points divide the sides, with Eastleigh sitting seventh in the table and the north Hampshire club 17th.
"Frank's a manager I've got a lot of time and the utmost respect for," said Baird. "I was lucky enough to play with him when I was a 19-year-old at Leeds. He and Peter Loriner were at the back end of their careers, but for lads like me who'd watched that great Leeds side, it was a privilege to play with him.
"Frank was a very quiet bloke but, whatever he did say, you took notice of."
TONY Taggart could be back flying up and down the right flank for Eastleigh at home to Basingstoke Town in the Blue Square Bet South tomorrow.
The Spitfires are awaiting international clearance to finalise the loan of the 28-year-old winger – just four months after Taggart left the Silverlake Stadium to join Newport County.
With Shaun McAuley and Peter Adeniyi lost to long-term injury, Eastleigh have had frontman Richard Gillespie filling in on the right.
Gillespie, as ever, has put in 100 per cent effort, but manager Ian Baird admitted: “The right has been a problem for us since day one of the season and we need to address it.
“Losing McAuley and Adeniyi means we’ve had to put square pegs in round holes.”
Some would argue that Taggart should never have been allowed to go in the first place, but Baird said: “There was nothing we could do.
“Taggs was offered full-time football at a Conference National club and he would have been a fool not to take it.
“We couldn’t compete with the deal he was offered there.”
It was Baird who first brought Taggart - affectionately known as "the flying bin man" - to Eastleigh from his old club Havant & Waterlooville in the summer of 2008.
The winger's arrival coincided with the Spitfires' best ever Blue Square Bet South campaign of 2008/09 when they finished third in the league and narrowly missed out on promotion. He top-scored with 15 goals.
Last season was less successful for him, but County boss Dean Holdsworth was quick to snap up his services, giving the former refuse collector the chance to train full-time at his new club.
Taggart, though, carried a three-match suspension with him to south Wales and, with County going so well, he has struggled to break into the side.
"It suits him and it suits us to get Taggs back," said Baird. "We've missed having someone like him in the side."
As of yesterday, Baird was 99 per cent certain the Taggart deal would go through, all being well with international clearance.
Unfortunately for Eastleigh, midfielder Anthony Riviere is nowhere near ready to start a game, despite twice coming off the bench against Braintree and Bognor.
The 31-year-old appeared to be well on the mend after a lengthy spell out with Achilles tendon problems, but Baird revealed: "He's a long, long way away from starting.
"He's been over-compensating for the injury on the other leg and hasn't trained this week. Hopefully he'll be on the bench tomorrow, but it's a slow process. He's hardly played in eight or nine months and we've got to manage him the right way."
Tomorrow sees Baird reunited with one of his former Leeds United team-mates Frank Gray, the manager of Basingstoke Town.
Currently five points divide the sides, with Eastleigh sitting seventh in the table and the north Hampshire club 17th.
"Frank's a manager I've got a lot of time and the utmost respect for," said Baird. "I was lucky enough to play with him when I was a 19-year-old at Leeds. He and Peter Loriner were at the back end of their careers, but for lads like me who'd watched that great Leeds side, it was a privilege to play with him.
"Frank was a very quiet bloke but, whatever he did say, you took notice of."
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