Eastleigh were defeated 2-0 against Southport FC, which knocked them out of the FA Trophy. Goals either side of half-time from Ted Lavelle and Malakai McKenzie were enough to seal the deal.

Eastleigh took on Southport in the FA Trophy Fourth Round in a rearranged fixture that was originally planned to go ahead on Saturday. Scott Bartlett’s side haven’t had a run out in 10 days since beating Boston United 2-1 away from home. Bartlett made two changes to the team that played that day. A first start in an Eastleigh shirt for Cardiff City loanee Lucy Giles, in place of Lloyd Humphries, who drops to the bench after 11 consecutive starts. James Waite, who was cup tied after featuring for Weston Super Mare in the FA Trophy, missed out, allowing Angel Waruih to make his first start since the 5th of November against Sutton.

After five minutes, Eastleigh made the first breakthrough, playing through the lines as Waruih turned his man in the middle of the pitch. He laid the ball off to Josh Lundstram, who switched the play out to Sam Pearson. The Welshman played an inside pass to Harvey Saunders, who saw his effort blocked away for a corner. Unfortunately, Archie Harris’ corner did not prevail.

The Spitfires came close again in the 10th minute when Aaron Blair found space in behind the right-hand side. He laid the ball back to Lundstarm, who showed great footwork to beat Ben Collins. He then slid the ball across the box, where Waruih’s low, drilled first-time effort was saved by Chris Renshaw.

Eastleigh continued to cause problems for Southport. In the 16th minute, Kieron Evans played a fantastic cross-field pass to Giles, who cushioned the ball wonderfully. Giles then offloaded the ball to Waruih, whose cross was cut out by Jordan Keane for a corner before it could reach the head of Pearson. Unfortunately, once again, the corner was retrieved by their goalkeeper.

21 minutes into the game, Blair pulled out the closest effort of the game from 30 yards out. Making space for himself deep inside the Southport box, the striker only had eyes for goal. His right-footed effort was curling towards the top corner but was only kept out by the crossbar!

Pearson then took the crown for the closest chance of the game so far, as the ball fell to him from four yards out after Lundstram’s shot was parried into his path. However, Pearson could not capitalise on the open-goal opportunity.

The visitors registered their first shot of the game in the 26th minute in acrobatic style when the ball fell to Malakai McKenzie in the box, but his effort trickled wide of the post.

Unfortunately, play was stopped for a few minutes in the 40th minute when Temi Eweka suffered an injury after a collision with Jordan Slew.

Whilst Eastleigh had 10 men on the pitch, Southport chose their time to find the opener when Slew’s deflected effort fell to Ted Lavelle, who scored from close range, making it 1-0 to Southport in the 44th minute.

There was no more action to report after the referee signalled three additional minutes of the half.

Southport started the second half in the same fashion that they ended the first, with a goal. Mckenzie found himself in a 1v1 against Giles; he opted to shoot, and the ball deflected up and over Townsend to make the scoring 2-0 to the visitors.

Once again, Pearson will be kicking himself after missing a golden opportunity. This time, a one-two between Blair and Harvey Saunders ended with the latter slotting the ball across the goal to Pearson, who struck the ball into the post whilst the goalkeeper was nowhere to be seen.

Eastleigh nearly came close to getting a goal back when the ball fell to Blair, but his close-range effort was deflected wide for a corner.

Whilst the corner was being taken, Nial Maher made his long-awaited return from an ACL injury, ruling him out since March 2025.

It was very nearly a fairytale moment, as Harris’ corner was met brilliantly by the head of Maher. His powerful header hit the underside of the crossbar but did not end up being a goal.

In the 87th minute, the referee waved away two penalty appeals inside the Southport box. A corner from Harris reached Aaron Pierre, who appeared to be wrestled to the ground, and seconds later a shot from the edge of the box seemed to strike a Sandgrounders hand, but the referee deemed both not enough to be a penalty.

With 10 minutes to go, Lundstram came up with a moment of magic around the box before laying the ball off to Saunders, whose effort was saved straight down the throat.

This was the last chance of the game for Eastleigh as the Spitfires were knocked out of the FA trophy.

Eastleigh: Townsend, Eweka (Humphries 44′), Evans, Blair, Saunders, Pierre, Lundstram, Waruih, Pearson (Vokins 82′), Giles (Maher 63′), Harris

Unused Substitues: Mcnamara, Vokins, Fernandez, Killick, Jones

Yellow cards: Evans 88′

Southport FC: Renshaw, Pike (Burgess 45′) Lavelle, Moore, Slew, Mckenzie, Gnahoua (Lloyd 69′), Collins, Hilton, Griffiths

Unused Substitutes: McMillian, Lloyd, Cowan

Yellow Cards: Collins 29′ Lloyd 85′ Blair 90+3′

Goals: Lavelle 44′ Mckenzie 49′

Attendance 749 (49)

Report by Ed Groves.