AS always Eastleigh boss Richard Hill has done his homework ahead of tomorrow’s Vanarama Conference visit of third-placed FC Halifax.

He made the 360-mile round trip from Oxford to West Yorkshire on Tuesday to witness the Shaymen’s 2-2 draw with Wrexham – only to miss the game’s most controversial incident at the start of the second half.

With Halifax leading 1-0, they had defender Marc Roberts shown a straight red for allegedly fouling Louis Moult when the Wrexham man was clean through on goal.

Shaymen’s boss Neil Aspin was so incensed that he was sent to the stand, but Hill was still finishing his half-time meat and potato pie!

“They had proper pie like you get up north with mushy peas, chips and gravy. I was looking down and just lifted my head at the end of the incident, so I didn’t see it clearly,” he laughed.

“I don’t know if they’ve appealed, but even if the lad’s suspended tomorrow they’ll be strong. They did very well on Tuesday. They’re a decent, hard-working side.” Tomorrow completes a quartet of ‘monster’ games for 13th-placed Eastleigh, having sandwiched a 1-1 home draw with Bristol Rovers between defeats at Wrexham and league leaders Barnet.

Hill hasn’t had a full complement of players available for any of them and the same applies tomorrow.

James Constable (foot), Ben Wright (knee) and Jamie Turley (arm) remain sidelined as does Jack Midson, who has damaged shoulder ligaments and could be out for six weeks.

“Ben Wright’s still some way away, but he’s coming on well. He’s our one ray of sunshine,” said Hill.

“We started the season without Jamie Collins and then Craig Stanley got injured. I haven’t once had a full squad available and the issue’s been compounded by these four games we’ve had.”

Given the injury list, the last thing Hill wanted to do was risk first-team players in Monday’s Hampshire Senior Cup win over Folland Sports. But he had no choice because the under-18s were in midweek FA Youth Cup action – a 6-0 win at Kingstonian.

Thankfully everyone came through unscathed against Follands, bar defender Will Evans who jarred his knee, but Hill is optimistic he will be fit.