A valiant 3-1 loss at Boreham Wood saw Eastleigh’s FA Cup campaign end in the first round proper.
Zak Brunt’s goal midway through the second half sealed the game for the hosts after first half goals from George Broadbent, Lee Ndlovu and Charlie Carter.
The game was action-packed from the start and on 10 minutes the hosts took the lead, Broadbent applied the deftest of touches to Femi Ilesami’s cross to flick the ball past Joe McDonnell and into the Spitfires net.
Just 30 seconds later, McDonnell was again called into action to deny Danny Newton from close range. Eastleigh failed to clear their lines and Boreham Wood were immediately back on the attack.
Newton’s low pass split open the Spitfires defence and set Ndlovu one-on-one, this time the Boreham Wood attacker made no mistake and slotted the ball home.
It didn’t take Eastleigh long to get back into the game as on 17 minutes Carter halved the deficit. The Spitfires midfielder burst into the box to fire Brennan Camp’s cross past Nathan Ashmore.
The action continued at a quickfire pace and within a minute of the Spitfires goal, JJ McKiernan saw an effort from the edge of the box come crashing off the post.
Ten minutes from half-time Vincent Harper won a corner when he left two Boreham Wood defenders in his past before seeing his effort from the edge of the box deflected behind for a corner.
The resulting delivery saw Camp have a header cleared off the line and into the path of McKiernan whose shot from the edge of the box took a nick off a Boreham Wood defender on its way into the side netting.
The end-to-end action returned after the break as both sides pushed to add another goal early in the second half.
A fantastic mazy run from Oscar Rutherford down the right allowed him to set up Carter who went agonisingly close to drawing the Spitfires level 10 minutes into the second half, his effort bending the wrong side of the post.
On the hour mark the hosts restored their two-goal lead, Cameron Coxe broke down the right-hand side before feeding Zak Brunt in the centre of the box.
In search of a way back into the game Lee Bradbury introduced Danny Whitehall and Ryan Hill from the bench.
With seven minutes to go Tristan Abrahams was tripped inside the box and Paul Marsden pointed to the spot for a Spitfires penalty.
Substitute Whitehall stepped forward but sent his penalty sailing high over the crossbar.
Eastleigh came close to pulling another goal back through John Oyenuga in injury time, but they were once again denied by the woodwork.
Eastleigh FC: McDonnell, Camp, Martin (c), Langston, Kelly (Oyenuga 89′), Cisse (Hill 70′), McKiernan, Carter (Ebanks 89′), Rutherford (Atangana 89′), Harper (Whitehall 62′), Abrahams
Match report by George Rees-Julian
