Hill upbeat after Eastleigh draw (From This is Hampshire)

Hill upbeat after Eastleigh draw

11:41pm Tuesday 12th March 2013 in Hampshire Sport By Wendy Gee

EASTLEIGH remain three points behind fifth-placed Boreham Wood in the Blue Square Bet South after the Hertfordshire side hit back to force a 1-1 draw at the Silverlake Stadium last night.

The play-off chasing Spitfires had enough chances to have won handsomely, sending the 401-strong crowd home with a feeling of ‘what if?’ But while manager Richard Hill shared in some of the fans’ disappointment, he said: “I’m also pretty pleased that we haven’t lost any ground on Boreham Wood and that we’re one point better off than we were.

“In my eyes, this Eastleigh team is only 12 games old and it’s still evolving.

“Yes, we need to be a bit more clinical, but you don’t go from the team we were (second to bottom) to the team we are now without one or two disappointments along the way.

“But it tells you all you need to know about these lads that they’re choked not to have beaten a team who have been in the play-off positions all season.”

Eastleigh began on the front foot and went ahead on 17 minutes with what Hill described as “an unbelievable team goal.”

Chris Zebroski, Michael Green and Damian Scannell were all involved in the build-up and man-of-the-match Jai Reason finished it off with a stunning volley into the top corner.

Despite creating chances galore, the Spitfires failed to build on that lead and were pegged back on 72 minutes when Charlie O’Loughlin headed home a corner.

Eastleigh swarmed forward in search of a winner and, in the space of three hectic minutes, Dale Binns hit the inside of the post, Zebroski headed against the crossbar and Chris Todd had a header clawed off the line by ’keeper James Russell.

“We were a bit loose defending the corner but what’s disappointing is that the lad who scored their goal shouldn’t have been on the pitch,” said Hill. “He’d elbowed Reason in the first half and been booked and then he blatantly body-checked Zebroski but the referee let it go.”

Eastleigh, still seventh, also had a penalty shout turned down for O’Loughlin’s challenge on Reason on the hour.