EFL veteran Chris Maguire was taking a leap of faith when he dropped into Non-League with Eastleigh.
Having started out at Aberdeen, the 34-year-old has some of the biggest clubs outside the Premier League on his CV, the likes of Sunderland, Portsmouth and Sheffield Wednesday. With his family based back in his native Scotland, a move to the south coast of England as he nears the end of his career didn’t seem like the most logical move.
But his relationship with Eastleigh’s ambitious owner, former Sunderland chairman Stewart Donald, was instrumental as he decided to drop into England's fifth tier.
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Much of the Non-League limelight had been hogged by Wrexham and their Hollywood owners prior to their promotion back to the Football League. But Eastleigh, based just outside Southampton, will take centre stage today (Sunday) when they take crisis-hit League One side Reading.
Maguire will be a key man as the Spitfires aim to cause a shock in front of the ITV cameras. He and Donald go back a long way. Maguire played for Oxford while Donald was a shareholder at the club and then played for Sunderland during Donald’s turbulent reign, much of which was chronicled by the Netflix series Sunderland ‘Til I Die.
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After Donald completed his takeover of Eastleigh in May, and sold his final shares in the Black Cats, Maguire was one of the first arrivals of Eastleigh’s new era.
“The chairman wants success on the pitch and his main aim is to get the club promoted,” Maguire tells Daily Star Sport. “I’ve known him since he was at Oxford and then Sunderland and had a good relationship with him. He likes me as a player as well, which helps.
“I didn’t know much about the National League when I came here, to be honest. Some of the teams, no disrespect, I hadn’t heard of them and you wonder what sort of style you’ll be coming up against.
“But it’s been surprising because there are some teams in the division that play some good football. It’s not just route one football, which is what people probably think.”
Maguire has had plenty of moves in his career, covering most parts of the country. Some have worked out better than others, but he is happy and settled at Eastleigh, even if it is a long trek from his family home.
“There’s been a few that you look back on over your career and you think that wasn’t the right time or place to go to,” he reflects. “But at the age I’m at, I’m feeling good, I’m fit, I’m playing football, which is still something I love to do.
“The club have been brilliant with me. Being so far away from the kids, the manager [Richard Hill] is good at giving me time off when I need it and the other players understand my situation. It’s a good fit.”
An ambitious non-league club against a struggling EFL outfit – the ingredients are certainly there for an FA Cup shock. Maguire has some simple advice for his younger team-mates ahead of the big match.
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“People know about Reading and their problems over the last couple of seasons,” says Maguire. “Looking at them now, they’re not in the best run of form and they’ve got other stuff going on off the park.
“It’s a good tie for us and the boys will be up for. It’ll be a good, proper FA Cup tie. We’ve just got to try and enjoy it and not get caught up in the occasion.”
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