Ahead of the Spitfires’ trip up to Newport, we take a look back at our journey to the third round of the FA Cup.

Eastleigh 1-0 Dover Athletic:

Our FA Cup journey began against Dover Athletic at the Silverlake Stadium back in October where hopes of a notable run in the competition were high.

With the visitors proving to be tough to break down, a goal for either side looked uncertain.

This was until Charlie Carter received the ball from Jake Taylor who scored the only goal of the afternoon in the 60th minute with a cool finish into the bottom right corner.

This win earned the Spitfires a ticket to the first round proper of the competition.

Eastleigh 5-1 Boreham Wood:

The Spitfires were then drawn to play at home against Boreham Wood.

The two sides had met at Boreham Wood’s Meadow Park in the previous two seasons in the FA Cup, with the Hertfordshire side winning both of those games.

That streak was snapped in convincing fashion, the Spitfires put five past the Boreham Wood defence to seal the win with goals coming from Nigel Atangana, Chris Maguire and Ludwig Francillette.

This meant that the Spitfires would go through to the second round of the tournament.

Eastleigh 2-1 Reading:

The Spitfires then went on to be drawn to play against Reading at the Silverlake Stadium.

The game was selected to be on ITV and was played in front of over 5,000 fans.

Reading fans launched a protest in the 16th minute by throwing tennis balls, fake bank notes and flares onto the pitch.

Paul McCallum slid in at the back post just six minutes after this to give the Spitfires the lead in the tie.

Reading equalised late on through Femi Azeez and the sides were looking set for a replay entering injury-time.

But then, McCallum popped up with the winner in the 94th minute, sending the crowd into raptures.

Newport County:

We travel to South Wales to face Newport in the third round.

This will be the first time the two sides have met since 2010.

Newport’s road to the third round was not a smooth one. They were taken to a replay against Barnet in the previous round, but they won that game 4-1 at The Hive Stadium.