EASTLEIGH are seizing the opportunity to experiment with Friday night football this week.

With England's Euro 2008 qualifier against Macedonia coming up this Saturday (5pm), the Spitfires have moved their Conference South fixture against Yeading to Friday (7.45pm) instead of plumping for an earlier Saturday kick-off.

Because bigger crowds are crucial to their development, Eastleigh have long been toying with the idea of moving some of their matches to Friday nights and will be interested to gauge the reaction.

Chairman Paul Murray, right, said: "We try not to clash with Saints and have managed to avoid them in all but five matches this season.

"We have also moved our evening matches from Wednesdays to Tuesdays to try and avoid televised football, although we still compete with TV on a number of Tuesdays.

"We have for some time explored the possibility of playing on a Friday and now is our chance to experiment and to see if the idea is attractive to our fans in the area.

"We will be keen to see if our attendance is good this Friday and if local football fans like the idea.

"It may be something that would work in non-League football. Woking, Havant & Waterlooville, Bognor and Lewes are all playing this Friday."