Eastleigh finish home campaign on a high

By Wendy Gee -

EASTLEIGH brought the curtain down on their home campaign in convincing style yesterday, brushing Hampton & Richmond Borough aside 3-0 at the Silverlake Stadium.

A rash of late first-half goals by Jamie Brown, Danny Smith and Tony Taggart halted a run of three straight defeats in the Blue Square Bet South and gave a sun-drenched Easter Monday crowd of 454 something to cheer about.

But unfortunately for the stuttering Spitfires, their play-off dream had already been shattered by that trio of costly losses against Maidenhead, Ebbsfleet and Boreham Wood.

It's a case of so near and yet so far for Eastleigh who, until two weeks ago, had a fighting chance of muscling into the top five.

But going into the last game at Bromley this Saturday, they sit eighth in the table, five points adrift of fifth spot.

"We're on 69 points going into the last game and historically 70-odd points gets you into the play-offs," reflected manager Ian Baird.

"We can still get 72 points, but the strength of the league this season means we would have needed 74 or 75 to make the play-offs.

"It's frustrating, particularly as we played very well today.

"We were 3-0 up at half time and we must have missed another six chances in the second half. No disrespect to Hampton, but they didn't have a lot to play for and they never had any sort of threat on goal.

"We were far and away the better side."

With just Luke Byles and Richard Gillespie under contract for next season, the hard work now begins for Baird and the board of directors deciding whether to stick with the experienced squad they've got or bring in younger, fresher legs.

Baird is due to meet with chairman Paul Murray and directors David Malone and Mick Budny today to discuss which direction the Spitfires go in.