The Spitfires extend their unbeaten run to 10 games, following a draw against Oldham Athletic at the Silverlake Stadium.

The first of two clashes between the two sides within the same week got off to a start when Ludwig Francillette put the Spitfires into the lead just after the half hour mark.

Oldham came up with two goals in quick succession in the second half, which were cancelled out quickly by Richard Brindley in the 69th minute.

The first chance of the game, didn’t come until the 22nd minute. Oldham whipped a corner into the danger area, and saw it bounce around by the goal mouth. Niall Maher was able to get his foot on it first, and cleared the ball away from danger.

After this, it did not take long until Eastleigh created their first real goal scoring chance of the game. Tyrese Shade powered the ball towards goal from the edge of the box, but couldn’t direct it on target.

Following a quiet start on the attacking end from both sides, Francillette headed Eastleigh into the lead. He got up higher than everyone else, and directed the ball into the air, and was also able to get it down enough for it to be able to nestle it’s way into the back of the net.

Shade was quickly given the opportunity to double the Spitfires’ lead. A dinked pass over the Oldham defence would go straight into his path, leaving him one-on-one with Mathew Hudson. The Oldham ‘keeper closed him down and put him under pressure, which lead to him not getting his desired contact on his shot, as he saw it trickle wide of the goal.

Francillette’s goal would be enough to have Eastleigh leading at the interval.

Joe Garner was given a golden opportunity to put the visitors back on level terms, not long after the break. But, he was blaze his close-range effort over the crossbar, after looking almost guaranteed to find the back of the net.

The Spitfires went up the other end, and also came close to scoring. Dominic Gape had two shots blocked, before Richard Brindley had a shot parried away by Hudson, all within the space of a few seconds.

Mike Fondop glanced a header wide of the target in the 58th minute, after connecting with a promising looking cross for the visitors.

Oldham would then go on to break through and grab an equaliser, just a few minutes later. Captain, Charlie Raglan headed them back onto level terms from close-range. Following the leveller, Fondop headed Oldham into the lead of the game in the 65th minute.

The Spitfires responded to the goals well, and got back on level terms just four minutes later. McCallum sent in a long throw, which was met by Lloyd Humphries who directed the header closed to the target, giving Richard Brindley the chance to head the ball home from close-range to get his second goal in as many games.

The visitors pushed for a way back into the lead over the next ten minutes or so, but were unsuccessful and saw any chance the came up with get dealt with by the Eastleigh defence.

Shade came close to scoring at the beginning of injury-time. He got through on goal, and had a go from an awkward angle, but could not quite find the target.

The final chance of the game came three minutes into injury-time. McCallum connected with a free kick, but saw his highly contested header go just wide of the target. This meant that the game would end level at the Silverlake Stadium, with the two sides due to meet again later this week in the reverse fixture.

Eastleigh: McDonnell (GK), Brindley, Humphries, Francillette, Taylor (C), McCallum, Shade, Gape (Fernandez, 78′), Waruih, Boutin, Maher

Unused subs: Scott (GK), Maguire, Hodson, Stepien-Iwumene, Semenyo, Underhill

Goals: Francillette (32′), Brindley (69′)

Yellow cards: Waruih (70′)

Oldham Athletic: Hudson (GK), Ogle, Kitching, Clucas, Monthe, Lundstram (Kay, 61′), Fondop, Garner (Reid, 61′), Raglan (C), Gardner, Caprice

Unused subs: Maloney (GK), Charsley, Uchegbulam, Taylor, Khan

Goals: Raglan (62′), Fondop (65′)

Yellow cards: Clucas (70′), Raglan (79′), Gardner (83′)

Referee: Kirsty Dowle

Attendance: 1,846 (238 away)

Report by Matthew Gibbs