Eastleigh 'have a great chance' of beating Walsall

Scott Bartlett took over from Kelvin Davis as Eastleigh manager in September

Eastleigh boss Scott Bartlett has said that his side "have a great chance" of beating Walsall in the FA Cup on Sunday.

The Spitfires will take on the League Two leaders this weekend in the first round of England's oldest cup competition.

Bartlett took over as manager of the National League side from former Southampton goalkeeper Kelvin Davis in late September.

Eastleigh have enjoyed success in the FA Cup in recent times, beating Reading at home in 2023 to send them through to the third round.

"I think we've got a chance of doing something," Bartlett told BBC Sport.

"I don't really want to say it'd be a massive upset because we also have players that played a higher level and I've found that you do get an extra 10-20% out of some of those boys in games like this.

"We're at home and we want to take the game to them but we're also respectful of their qualities, but nothing would make me more pleased than to progress.

"A cup run is all about the memories - it's grabbing some extra fans and taking them on that journey with us because it's a brilliant football club and it's all set up to be in the league above in my opinion."

Bartlett was previously boss of Weston-super-Mare and before that he coached across the age levels at Forest Green Rovers, taking over as caretaker boss on two separate occasions.

This season is Eastleigh's 12th campaign in the fifth tier of English football, with their highest finish in that time fourth place in 2015.

Bartlett is determined to push the Hampshire side one step further than they have ever been before and into League Two.

"When I came in I was told that the club want to get promoted," he added.

"There's absolutely no doubt about that, but so do 20 others in our division and there's some really big boys above us at the league.

"We've got everything here to do well but for me, having a look at what we've got, we need to push now to get in that next little bracket of clubs and see where that takes us.

"If we got to the end of the season and we've started to build a squad for the following year that can push with some exciting players and play the way I want to play, then that would be a good place to be.

"But we're all selfish, I want to finish as high as we can and I'd love to be in that top little bracket - we're not quite there yet but I do feel with a fair win we could get there."