Rovers poised to sign Eastwood

Rovers are set to sign Simon Eastwood from Portsmouth after rejecting the chance to remain at Fratton Park.

Eastwood was believed to be the ultimate first choice to take up his position between the stick at League Two Pompey but has snubbed them after initially verbally agreeing to remain at the club for another season.

The Chichester Observer has reported Pompey manager Guy Whittingham as saying – ‘It`s disappointing because we had agreed a deal with Eastie and were just waiting for him to come back from holiday to sign everything.

‘But he had an offer from a Championship club and felt it was better for him, so we move on.

‘It has been on, off, on, off with him and now he has gone elsewhere. That`s the way it goes.

‘When this came up with Eastie it was something that happened towards the end of last week, so we had already started to think about other options.

‘Good luck to him. He`s a great lad and I hope he has made the right decision for his career.`

The paper is also speculating that John Keeley helped persuade Eastwood to swap South Coast for North West. He will likely play back up to Jake Kean next season.