Eastwood was a youngster with the Shrimpers’ Centre of Excellence three years ago, but instead of signing a three-year scholarship, he chose to join East London outfit West Ham United in order to make the big time. However, last season the 19-year-old was allowed to leave, and despite the interest of several clubs, it was Grays Athletic, then in the Ryman League Premier Division, that received his services in August 2003.
Highly-rated at Upton Park, since moving to the Recreation Ground he has scored goals aplenty, with 37 goals in all during the Blues’ successful campaign to win them a top half place and thus enter the inaugural Conference South campaign. 29 of those strikes came in the Ryman League, including four in his second appearance against Braintree Town and hat-tricks against St. Albans City, Bognor Regis Town and Hendon in the FA Cup.
All three hat-tricks included one penalty apiece, and in all he managed to convert six spot-kicks, making him a decent man for that job should he replace Wayne Gray in the starting line-up. During 2003/4 he also had a trial with Charlton Athletic in the Premiership, whilst last season he netted a brace for Swindon Town reserves in a friendly against Team Bath.
Shrimpers chief Steve Tilson said of the signing, initially for a month, “One thing he can do is score goals but now it is just a question of whether he can make that transition and score goals at this level”. And the 38-year-old also revealed that he has been a target for some time: “We have him for a month and we can have a look at him; we enquired about Freddy in the summer but they wanted a lot of money for him so this will enable him to take a look at him and see where we go from there”.
Interestingly, Eastwood was rested from yesterday’s 3-1 FA Cup defeat to Wealdstone at the White Lion Sports Ground in front of the TLG cameras, having been replaced only half-hour into a lacklustre performance against Weston-Super-Mare the week before. Against Sutton United he had set one of Grays’ five goals up, but was again substituted after only 56 minutes, having scored six this season altogether.
Talking to the club’s official website, www.southendunited.co.uk, Eastwood said, “I have been enjoying my football and hopefully I can do a job here at Southend. Some of the strikers here haven’t been scoring regularly so there might be a chance for me to get into the side”. He continued, “I think I can make the step up. I don’t think it will be a problem as I have confidence in my ability”.
Robert Craven
www.thelittlegazette.com