Valuable Away Point - City 1-1 Eastleigh

Cambridge City 1 Eastleigh 1

Match Report by Ray Murphy

Eastleigh’s only two previous visits to Milton Road, Cambridge had both brought defeats. The home side opened the scoring after seventy-six seconds in this affair but Eastleigh fought back to earn a deserved draw.

The Eastleigh squad was pushed to its limits. Andy Harris and Paul Sales were both suspended but also unavailable through injury whilst Jamie Brown was also serving a one-match suspension.

Karim El Salahi was nursing a groin injury which saw the defender only last the first forty-five minutes. Manager Ian Baird gave a debut to new signing Warren Goodhind from Ebbsfleet United, the former Cambridge United, Barnet and Rochdale defender, started the game in a right back role before moving to his more accustomed central defensive role at the interval allowing Danny Smith to come in to the game at right back.

Starting with a formation with Andy Forbes being a lone striker, the home side attacked Eastleigh from the kick off. Anthony Thomas had already shown his danger on the right flank with his neat footwork even before Cambridge went ahead on seventy six seconds. A corner floated into the six yard box from the right hand side by Ashley Fuller was met by centre back Dave Theobald to give the home side the lead.

Clearly unsettled, Eastleigh took time to settle. After five minutes Goodhind’s short back pass was picked up by Thomas who strode into the area but James Pullen was quickly off his line to produce an excellent stop at the strikers feet. Eight minutes later Thomas this time the provider sent a cross into the box which saw Fuller fire a shot wide of the target.

Eastleigh switched formation soon after reverting to four in the middle of the park with Damian Scannell joining Forbes in a striking role. The move paid almost immediate dividends. Twenty minutes on the clock a long throw from former Cambridge City left back Adam Everitt was only half cleared by the City defence allowing Forbes to turn and fire home his eighteenth goal of the season.

Six minutes later Eastleigh showing the more attacking options now saw a David Hughes free kick receive a deft header from Forbes but the home goalkeeper Shane Herbert managed to read the strikers attempt. The home side were still creating their own chances with their leading scorer Michael Gash causing the Eastleigh defence problems, his shot on the turn from the edge of the box brought another Pullen stop.

The second period started slowly. On fifty-eight minutes though Pullen kept the scores level with a fine triple save to deny Gash after he broke free of the Eastleigh defence. The game was evenly balanced with seventeen minutes remaining Scannell bore down on the home defence with Forbes. The striking duo set up Anthony Riviere who fired a shot through the legs of a defender but Herbert saved his effort.

At the opposite end of the park a minute later Eastleigh failed to clear their lines from a free kick and Fuller let fly with a volley and Pullen brought the feintest of touches with an acrobatic save that saw the shot thunder against the bar but away to safety.

Forbes had the ball in the net again on seventy-six minutes being fed in by Scannell. Forbes slipped the ball past Herbert but was adjudged to have been offside.

In the closing minutes City substitute Lee Roache controlled a high ball into the area but saw his shot saved by Pullen, from the resulting corner Roache had another opportunity but turned his shot wide of the target.