Eastleigh ran out comfortable winners in their second pre-season friendly as a dominant second half performance saw their Hampshire neighbours, Gosport Borough, soundly beaten.
The first chance of the game came in the 7th minute after Abdulai Baggie played a lofted ball to put Brad Tarbuck through on goal who then forced Ross Flitney into a fine stop.
The Spitfires had their first chance of the game in the 13th minute when Michael Kelly whipped in a great cross which Trialist C was unable to convert.
In the 20th minute, another chance came Eastleigh’s way in the Kelly delivered a dangerous free-kick that Christian Maghoma was able to head goal bound but was denied by a diving save from Patrick O’Flaherty.
Play was stopped in the 22nd minute to allow both sets of players to take some water on board in the 27°C heat.
A big chance fell the way of Gosport Borough in the 33rd minute when Matt Briggs played a driven ball in from the left wing and found Abdulai Bell-Baggie who saw his attempt denied by a fantastic save from Ross Flitney.
The closest chance of the half came right at the end when Seung-woo Yang was fouled on the edge of the box by the Gosport defender.
Trialist A stepped up and hit the crossbar from his curling free-kick effort for the second pre-season friendly in a row.
The second half started lively and it didn’t take long before the Spitfires took the lead in the 50th minute after Tristan Abrahams did superbly well to drive into the box and square to Danny Whitehall who was on hand to tap home from close range.
Gosport responded almost instantly when Ryan Woodford headed in an equaliser to level the scores in the 52nd minute.
The Spitfires were awarded a penalty in the 56th minute after Vincent Harper was fouled in the area.
It was Danny Whitehall who stepped up and kept his composure to convert from 12-yards.
Gosport were denied another equaliser just after the hour mark when Harrison Brook was deemed to be in an offside position after slotting the ball beyond Ross Flitney.
For the third time in two consecutive pre-season games, Eastleigh were denied a free-kick goal by the crossbar as Tristan Abrahams rattled the woodwork this time around.
Just two minutes later, however, he struck gold after his curling effort found the top left corner to give the Spitfires a two-goal advantage.
Abrahams secured his brace after firing a powerful effort into the bottom corner from close range to make it 4-1 with ten minutes to go.
Two minutes later and substitute, Lyle Simpson, scored only four minutes after coming on off the bench to extend our lead to four goals.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, Jake Hesketh fired an unstoppable effort into the top corner from range to top of the excellent second-half performance.
First Half XI: Flitney, Camp, Maghoma, Bragg, Trialist A, Kelly, Trialist B, Yang, Carter, Trialist C, Hill
Second Half XI: Flitney, Trialist D, Bragg, Martin, Langston, Harper, Cissè, Trialist E, Hesketh, Abrahams, Whitehall