MANAGER Richard Hill held his hands up for picking the wrong team after Eastleigh’s play-off train was derailed by an unexpected 3-1 defeat at Tonbridge Angels last night.
With wideman Dale Binns cry ing off sick, Hill gambled by effectively playing four forwards – Chris Zebroski, Jai Reason, Damian Scannell and fit-again Craig McAllister.
But, having had a strong penal ty claim turned down for hand ball, the Spitfires fell behind to a Mark Lovell goal shortly before half-time and then conceded twice in four minutes as Frannie Collin and Lee Browning struck just after the hour.
Reason pulled a goal back for Eastleigh, but the referee then waved away another handball appeal by the visitors and, in the aftermath, Scannell was shown a straight red for making his feel ings known.
“After finding out what Scannell said, he was rightly sent off – but that was probably the only decision the ref got right all night,” said Hill, pic tured below.
“On the whole our performance was not good enough from play ers I expect bet ter of, but it does n’t alter the fact that we had a definite penalty turned down at 0-0 and the refer ee – who came from 15 miles away in Maidstone – gave every 50-50 decision to Tonbridge and stopped us build ing any momentum.
“I took a gamble with the team because we need to win football matches and, on reflection, it was wrong. But I wouldn’t have taken that gamble if Binnsy had been available.”
The result came as a major tonic for Tonbridge who had been sucked towards the relega tion zone after losing six of their previous seven matches.
Eastleigh remain seventh but, with fifth-placed Weston-super- Mare winning 3-1 at Sutton thanks to ex-Saint Kayne McLaggon’s hat-trick, Hill’s men are now seven points adrift of the play-off zone with two games in hand over Weston.
