Former Lincoln City defender Jake Caprice has joined National League side Eastleigh on a permanent deal.
The 33-year-old has been confirmed as the latest arrival at the Silverlake Stadium after leaving Oldham Athletic at the end of last season. He made 29 appearances in all competitions for the Latics during their first campaign back in the Football League, helping them finish tenth in League Two.
That followed a successful first season at Boundary Park, where Caprice helped Oldham secure promotion through the National League play-offs and collected the Manager’s Player of the Season award. His move to Eastleigh takes him back into a division he knows well, having previously represented Tamworth, City, Woking and Leyton Orient before his spell with the Latics.
Caprice spent the 2014/15 season at Sincil Bank, arriving on a one-year deal under Gary Simpson following his release by Blackpool. He had started out at Crystal Palace, signing professional terms in 2011, before moving to Bloomfield Road and taking in loan spells with Dagenham & Redbridge, St Mirren and Tamworth.
A pacey full-back with an attacking instinct, he made his City debut in the opening-day goalless draw against Kidderminster Harriers. Injury interrupted his progress around the time of Simpson’s dismissal, but he returned under Chris Moyses and finished his solitary season with us having made 38 appearances in all competitions.
There was certainly talent there, but Caprice was not offered a new contract and moved to Woking in the summer of 2015. He subsequently featured in the Cards side that beat us twice the following season, before spending a year at Leyton Orient and joining Tranmere Rovers in 2018.
It was at Tranmere that he delivered one of the defining moments of his career, supplying the cross for Connor Jennings to score the 119th-minute winner against Newport County in the 2019 League Two play-off final. That earned Rovers promotion to League One, and Caprice later enjoyed another promotion from the fourth tier with Exeter City in 2022.
He made 123 appearances across three seasons with the Grecians before moving to Burton Albion in 2023. A year later, he reunited with his former Tranmere manager Micky Mellon at Oldham, adding another promotion to a career that has taken him considerably further than his single season with us might have suggested.
Caprice will link up with former Lincoln City teammate Nick Townsend, who also plies his trade with the National League outfit.
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