The Spitfires continued their preparations for the new season with a tightly contested battle against Football League opposition Swindon Town in their fourth pre-season friendly.

First-half goals from Shade and McCallum put Eastleigh in control, but Swindon responded with goals from Oldaker, Smith, and Snowdon to overturn the lead.

The match began with an end-to-end tempo, but both sides initially struggled to break the deadlock. The first real chance of the game fell to Eastleigh, as Tyrese Shade burst down the left flank on the counter-attack, beating his marker with skill. However, no Eastleigh players were able to capitalise on his inviting ball into the box.

Kelvin Davis’ side kept the pressure on, and a long throw-in from Paul McCallum was met by Cousins, whose header went just wide of the post.

Swindon’s first clear opportunity came from a well-worked move, as Tom Nichols unleashed a long-range effort across goal, forcing a strong save from Nick Townsend.

The Spitfires found plenty of joy down the left-hand side early on, with Archie Harris linking up well with 2024/25 Player of the Season, Tyrese Shade.

Eastleigh opened the scoring in the 25th minute through a superb strike from Shade. The winger drove into space centrally and unleashed a thunderous effort into the bottom corner past Ripley.

They didn’t stop there. Just moments later, McCallum was brought down inside the box, winning a penalty, which he confidently dispatched down the middle as Ripley dived to his left—doubling the home side’s lead.

Swindon had two quick chances to respond: first, a deflected cross forced another sharp save from Townsend, then a loose pass from Kieron Evans nearly resulted in an own goal, only for Luis Fernandez to intervene just in time.

Eastleigh continued to threaten before the break, again through Shade. His low cross to McCallum allowed Lundstram to break into the box and get a shot away, which was smartly cleared by the Swindon defence.

Ian Holloway’s side pulled one back just before half-time. Darren Oldaker stepped up with a precise free-kick that left Townsend rooted in the middle of his goal.

Swindon came out strong in the second half, creating the first chance after the restart as Gav Kilkenny danced past several defenders, though he couldn’t find space to shoot.

They were level within 10 minutes of the restart. Ollie Clarke – judged onside – was played through and squared the ball to Harry Smith, who made no mistake in firing it into the net.

Momentum had clearly shifted. Swindon nearly took the lead moments later when Munroe drilled a low shot goalward, but Townsend reacted quickly to keep the scores level.

Eastleigh almost reclaimed the lead when Shade broke through one-on-one with Ripley, but a heavy touch while rounding the keeper prevented him from slotting home.

Swindon completed the comeback just after the hour mark with a well-worked team move orchestrated by Oldaker and finished by Joe Snowdon, who rifled the ball into the net from inside the box.

Eastleigh were handed a potential lifeline in the final 10 minutes when Swindon’s Mabete was shown a red card for a late challenge on Aaron Blair at the edge of the area.

The Spitfires pushed for an equaliser in the closing stages, with a cross-turned-shot from Freddie Ingram testing Ripley’s reflexes, but Swindon held firm to secure the win.

Eastleigh: Townsend, Brindley (Jones 86′), Fernandez (Ceesay 86′), Eweka (Killick 86′), Evans (Waruih 66′), McCallum (Blair 63′), Shade (Ingram 76′), Lundstram (Underhill 76′), Cousins (Taylor 63′), Harris (Michel 86′), Pierre (Trialist A 45′)

Unused Subs: Bristow, Cole

Goals: Shade 25′, McCallum 30′

Swindon Town: Ripley, Mabete, Ball (Wilson-Brown 45′), Nichols (Bodin 72′), Clarke, Smith, Tabor (Drinan 45′), Kilkenny, Snowdon (Kirkman 72′), Munroe (Ameen 72′), Oldaker

Unused Subs: Ward, Delaney, Glatzel, Butterworth, Mitchell

Goals: Oldaker 45+1′, Smith 54′ Snowdon 66′

Report by Josh Buxey