Spoils shared with rivals Havant

Monday 9th April - Havant & Waterlooville 1 Eastleigh 1

Report by Ray Murphy

Ian Oliver’s first goal of the season with a tremendous thirty yard left foot drive earned Eastleigh a point which they thoroughly deserved at promotion play off chasing Havant & Waterlooville. With other clubs in the lower section of the Division also gaining points it was a much needed point also.

With their second game in forty-eight hours, The Spitfires were forced to change their line up from the side that had beaten Fisher 4-0. Both Steve Watts and Karim El Salahi were not fit to start the match whilst Darren Wheeler surprisingly was fit enough to take a place on the substitutes bench.

In a match that never really lived up to the recent local rivalry of the two sides Eastleigh had the better of the opening half. Liam Green’s free kick on eleven minutes was pushed away by home goalkeeper Shane Gore. Three minutes later Andy Forbes cut in from the right flank but his final shot was just wide of the upright. Green produced another lob shot on seventeen minutes that just cleared the bar.

Havant’s best opening chance fell on twenty five minutes. A long clearance from Gore fell behind the Eastleigh defence and James Pullen raced from his area to head clear. Pullen’s clearance though only fell invitingly for Shaun Wilkinson who shot from the half way line but his effort carried a little too much weight and just cleared the bar.

The early pace started to take its toll as both sides settled in to an entertaining end to end affair. Havant went closest to scoring with a minute to go to the break. Wilkinson’s cross found the head of the Conference South leading goalscorer Rocky Baptiste but his looping header came away off the cross bar and then the Eastleigh defence scrambled away to safety.

Havant opened the scoring five minutes into the second period. Brett Poate’s free kick from twenty five yards, central on Pullen’s goal, never left the ground as the stroked free kick nestled into the corner of the net as The Hawks celebrated their opener.

As Eastleigh went in search of an immediate reply Rob Marshall’s header from a Green free kick was saved by Gore. Eastleigh then lost defender Steve West who had picked up an injury midway through the first half and had played through but finally had to give way to Chris Collins.

The home side held the upper hand for a while after the goal without really threatening Pullen. The nearest that Havant came to increasing their lead was a sixty ninth minute shot from Richard Pacquette that was saved by Pullen.

The game started to turn back into Eastleigh’s favour with ten minutes remaining. Home midfielder Shaun Wilkinson, who was presented before the match with the player of the month trophy and in the final minute of the match was voted player of the match, was heading off to the changing rooms for an early bath following two yellow cards during the afternoon.

Darren Wheeler turned and shot over the bar following a Forbes cross a minute later then Jamie Brown had a header cleared off the line by Justin Gregory the ball falling for Danny Smith who thundered a goalbound shot which again was blocked by Gregory.

With three minutes of the ninety remaining a Smith corner was only half cleared by the Havant defence and Oliver struck a thirty yard drive beyond Gore to register his first goal for Eastleigh and one that will be remembered for some time to come.

The final chance of the game also fell to Eastleigh. With two minutes of stoppage time played Wheeler found himself again behind the static home defence but he hurried his shot wide of the target.