Fleet Spurs 1 Eastleigh 5 (From Daily Echo)

Fleet Spurs 1 Eastleigh 5

12:09pm Wednesday 5th December 2012 in Sport

HOLDERS Eastleigh are safely through to the Hampshire FA Senior Cup quarter-finals after taming Sydenhams One underdogs Fleet Spurs 5-1 at Kennels Lane.

The Spitfires eventually stamped their class on the game after a goalless first half, but manager Richard Hill was less than enamoured that two of his players sustained possible injury due to the condition of the pitch.

“I will know more tomorrow, but potentially Michael Green and Jai Reason are injury worries for our game at Dover on Saturday,” said Hill.

“Fleet Spurs have earned their right to be in this competition, but no way should senior clubs like Eastleigh, Havant, Totton, Sholing and Winchester be made to play games on a surface like that which is bobbly with ruts in it,” he said.

“It was no better than a parks pitch and it got icy towards the end.

“Clubs at that level do the best with the facilities they’ve got. But while they have to pass criteria for things like floodlights, hard standing and so on, nowhere does it say that they have to have a suitable playing surface.”

It was Lee Peacock who eventually broke the deadlock for the Blue Square Bet South visitors with the first of his two goals on the night. Reason, Green and skipper Glen Southam also netted.

“Once we’d scored and settled down it was quite comfortable and we beat them well in the end,” said Hill. “But, credit to Fleet Spurs, they had a go.”