Hughes the last piece in Baird's jig-saw

By Wendy Gee -   

IAN Baird has added the last piece to his Eastleigh ‘dream team’, signing Northern Ireland international midfielder Mark Hughes on a one-year deal.

Hughes was club captain of Barnet last season, scoring the goal that secured the Bees League Two survival in a last-day 2-1 win at Burton Albion.

But he was not part of new manager Mark Robson’s plans and it’s a measure of Eastleigh’s new-found financial clout that they beat off competition from another League Two outfit, Cheltenham Town, to sign him.

Hughes featured in the Spitfires’ 3- 2 friendly defeat at Sholing on Tuesday along with Frenchman Jean-Francois Christophe who spent last season with Lincoln City.

It was 28-year-old Hughes who impressed with manager Baird explaining: “The French lad won’t feature again. He hasn’t done a preseason and we can’t wait for him to get fit.

“But I’ve agreed a deal with Mark.

“He’s been training with Gillingham and had an offer from Cheltenham, but we’ve managed to do a deal.

“I’ve been looking for another midfielder all along. We play with three in there and we only had three recognised midfielders.

“Daryl McMahon and Jai Reason are ball players, but we only had Glenn Southam to sit and hold and break things up. We needed another one who could do that and Mark fits the bill.

“He’s based in north London and we’ve got a few lads coming down from that way now.”

The tough-tackling Hughes started his career at Tottenham Hotspur and went on to make 60 league appearances for Oldham Athletic, initially on loan.

He re-emerged at Chester City, via Thurrock, Chesterfield (loan) and Stevenage Borough, and was a regular starter for 18 months before returning to north London with Barnet where he made 140 first-team starts.

Hughes was capped by Northern Ireland at youth and under-21 levels and has two full international caps for his country.