THE North family will have divided loyalties when Eastleigh and Bolton Wanderers contest this evening’s FA Cup replay at the Macron Stadium.

Eastleigh assistant manager Shaun North’s son Vinny is a senior performance analyst at Bolton and has been busy scouting his dad’s team in readiness for tonight’s big tie.

Shaun, who arrived at Eastleigh as Chris Todd’s right-hand man three months ago, has not spoken to Vinny, the second of his six children, since the 1-1 draw between the sides at the Silverlake Stadium ten days ago.

“What’s the point, we’d only lie through our teeth!” he laughs.

Vinny worked as an analyst alongside his dad at Oxford United, Torquay United and Bristol Rovers before taking on his first senior role at Crystal Palace, from where he followed Dougie Freedman to Bolton two-and-a-half years ago.

Shaun, a former Fareham, Cowes and Newport (IoW) defender, admits to being more old school.

“I was never massively into it [sports analysis] with all the stats and things like that,” he says.

“But Vinny came down to us at Torquay and got talking to Paul Buckley, the manager at the time, who was really into it.

“Paul asked him to do a few bits and pieces so he got himself in at Torquay and then went to Bristol Rovers with us.

“I’ve embraced it a lot more now. The game changes, the world changes. I recently did my Pro Licence which was a massive eye-opener.

“But we don’t have an analyst of our own at Eastleigh, the manager does that himself.”

Vinny was not at the Silverlake for the first game but has been busy poring over footage of it since.

“He doesn’t go to many Bolton games because he’s generally looking at their next opponents,” explained Shaun.

“When we played Bolton he was at Sheffield Wednesday v Fulham, as they were playing there the following Tuesday.”

But Vinny is able to be at the Macron tonight.

“We’ve prepared for this game as we prepare for any other,” he says. “I saw Eastleigh win 2-1 at Macclesfield the day after the third-round draw but had to divert to Fulham when their game against Bromley was called off the week before the first tie!”

Vinny, 26, was schooled on the Isle of Wight and at Bay House, Gosport.

He needed no introduction to two of Eastleigh’s players. Joe Partington was a boyhood team-mate and he was at Oxford United with Yemi Odubade, who is out of tonight’s tie with a hamstring injury, when he started out in performance analysis nine years ago.

With the exception of his grandad, who will be listening to the commentary at home in Ryde, he will not have any family support tonight.

“My five siblings have been giving me lots of abuse since the draw was made,” he laughs.

“They asked me for tickets and will all be coming up for the game, but they’re on dad’s side wanting an Eastleigh win.”

You do not need to be a performance analyst to know that Eastleigh will be up against it.

“I thought we were very unlucky in the first game and took them a little by surprise by what we could do,” said Portsmouth-based Shaun.

“This will be a lot more difficult because we’ll be in their surroundings, on their surface and in their stadium.”