Eastleigh boss upbeat despite away loss

6:24am Monday 21st April 2008

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FOLLOWING a tense afternoon when his old club Havant & Waterlooville's play-off hopes went up in smoke, Ian Baird was relieved to say that Eastleigh's fate was still in their own hands.

Despite paying the price for what Baird described as "ten minutes of madness" in a 3-2 defeat at St Albans City, results elsewhere mean the fifth-placed Spitfires can hang onto a play-off spot by taking three points - or possibly even one - in their last game away at mid-table Thurrock next week.

Considering Eastleigh had carelessly thrown away the lead at St Albans, leaking three goals between the 61st and 74th minutes, Baird was remarkably composed the morning after as he reflected on defeats for play-off rivals Bath City, Havant and Bishop's Stortford and a draw for Newport County.

Only Fisher winning (2-1 at Bishop's Stortford) did the Spitfires any real damage, knocking them down from fourth to fifth spot.

"This conversation would be a hell of a lot more negative if Saturday's results had gone differently," Baird admitted.

"On the face of it, it was extremely disappointing to lose at St Albans, but we live to fight another day because results elsewhere went in our favour.

"It leaves us needing to go to Thurrock and get a result - and I'm sure we'd have taken that if it had been offered to us at the start of the season."

Newport County can knock Eastleigh out of the play-off places tonight if they can beat visiting Thurrock.

But with County playing Fisher this weekend, that gives Eastleigh the chance to move back into the top five at either Newport or Fisher's expense - depending on the result in south Wales and also depending on Eastleigh's result at Thurrock.

Full story: See today's Daily Echo.