EASTLEIGH will have a brand new grass pitch to play on when League One outfit AFC Wimbledon visit in the opening pre-season friendly on Saturday (3pm).

But it’s a playing surface of the synthetic variety that is weighing on manager Richard Hill’s mind ahead of the new National League season.

Bromley, who entertain the Spitfires in the opening game on August 5, are joining Maidstone and Sutton United in installing a 3G pitch at their Hayes Lane ground – a concept Hill finds difficult to accept.

“I find it very strange that we spend six weeks of pre-season preparing and then the first game has to be on Astroturf. They’ll be training on it, while we’re training on grass,” he said.

“I also find it strange that 3G pitches are allowed at this level when, at the next level (League Two), you can’t have one. We’ve got teams in our competition who can’t be promoted and I do question why players want to sign for some of these clubs knowing they can’t progress.

“If those teams’ philosophy is that they’d dig up the 3G pitch and go back to grass if they did get promoted, then they’ve gained an unfair advantage.

“You could argue that the opportunity’s there for every club (to go 3G), but at the moment you can’t go up so there will be teams in our league spoiling the opportunity for other teams to get promoted.”

With this season’s play-offs extending down to seventh place there is a heightened chance that at least one of the clubs with a 3G pitch will finish in that bracket.

“If, for argument’s sake, one of them does end up in the play-off places, can they go into the play-offs?” asked Hill.

“You could get a situation where two of them finish top-seven and aren’t allowed in, meaning the play-offs would go down to eighth and ninth.

“To me, it’s contradictory, but rules are rules and we have to abide by them.”

Allaying fears that Eastleigh’s new pitch, laid this week, will not be ready for Wimbledon’s visit, Hill said: “The firm that’s done it has just done three pitches at Real Madrid’s training ground. They assured us that if it was finished by Friday we could play on it on Saturday. ”

Six new signings – Paul McCallum, Danny Hollands, Ross Flitney, Chris Zebroski, Mark Yeates and Sam Wood – are already in the bag and Hill is likely to run the rule over a handful of trialists against Neal Ardley's Wimbledon.

Dexter Peter, a 21-year-old centre-half previously at Colchester United, has been training with the Spitfires, along with 23-year-old ex-QPR, Woking and Whitehawk midfielder Frankie Sutherland, Tom Beere, a midfielder from AFC Wimbledon, and ex-Maidenhead left-back Tom Gilbey.

Two of Eastleigh’s long-term injured – defensive titan Reda Johnson and midfielder Jason Taylor – are back in training, but centre-back Ryan Cresswell is not yet ready following knee surgery.