Eastleigh 0 Gillingham 4.

EASTLEIGH’S unbeaten pre-season is over.

Manager Andy Hessenthaler’s old club Gillingham gave them a 4-0 wake-up call at the Silverlake Stadium tonight – three of the goals packed into the last half-hour in front of a 491 crowd.

The Spitfires had started well, quickly getting their passing game together with Paul McCallum’s header from Mark Yeates’ cross stopped at close quarters by the Gills’ 6ft 9in keeper Tomas Holy.

Eastleigh’s pumped-up No9 was proving a handful for centre-back Max Ehmer and the League One visitors found themselves doing the bulk of the early defending against an Eastleigh side playing with a real spring in their step.

But from a position of comfort the Spitfires fell behind to a well-struck 24th-minute Dean Parrett penalty awarded against goalkeeper Graham Stack for bringing down Regan Charles-Cook.

That lead lifted the Gills but they were indebted to their giant Czech goalkeeper for protecting it on 39 minutes with an outstanding stop from Ben Williamson as he latched onto McCallum’s delivery.

Williamson was denied again five minutes later, this time by the Holy man’s left leg after Yeates had threaded the ball through and the Spitfires could rightly feel aggrieved to be trailing at the break.

McCallum appealed in vain for a penalty early in the second half but, with Elliott List making a nuisance of himself, they survived a few close calls at the other end before falling 2-0 down.

Predictably, it was the pacy List who punished them on 64 minutes with a darting run and clinical finish from inside the box.

Stack then did well to turn away sub Barry Fuller’s blast but was beaten again when a soft shot from Liam Nash rolled under him and into the net.

Three soon became four as Gillingham's Brandon Hanlan headed home a corner within two minutes of going on.

Eastleigh: Graham Stack, Josh Hare, Michael Green, Alex Wynter, Andrew Boyce, Reda Johnson, Oscar Gobern, Danny Hollands, Paul McCallum, Ben Williamson, Mark Yeates. Subs used second half: Sam Wood, Cav Miley, Joey Jones, George Dowling, Chris Zebroski, Tom Bearwish, Ollie Dennett.