RICHARD Hill will have nigh on a fully fit Eastleigh squad available for tomorrow’s Vanarama Conference trip to rock-bottom AFC Telford United.

But he says that if hadn’t managed the squad as carefully as he has done over the last week or so, the Spitfires would have been in danger of travelling to the West Midlands with no James Constable, Ben Strevens, Paul Reid or Michael Green.

There were a few eyebrows raised last Saturday when Green, Constable, Stevens and Stuart Fleetwood were named on the bench and youth prospect Hussein Heidari handed a debut at right-back for the FA Trophy first round tie at Woking which Eastleigh lost 2-0, their third defeat on the bounce.

That losing streak stretched to four on Tuesday when a mixture of first-team and academy players were turfed out of the Hampshire FA Senior Cup 3-0 by Sydenhams League outfit Horndean, but Hill says that before anyone slates his team selection they should be aware of the facts.

“For the Woking game Constable and Reid were injured, Strevens was too sore to start, Will Evans was struggling and Greener didn’t start because of his ankle,” he said.

“I had no alternative but to put Hussein at right-back and I thought Yemi Odubade deserved a game because he’s not played that many minutes. People can pick holes all they like, but that’s what squads are for.”

Against Horndean, Odubade, Dean Beckwith, Chris Todd, Fleetwood and Jai Reason all started alongside teenagers Josh Helm, Jack Smith, Tony Lee, Harry Weeks, Jack Shiner and Harrison Weeks.

“Again I had to be careful of who I played,” said Hill. “Beckwith was coming back from suspension and I felt some needed to play for fitness purposes. All the pros that played were asked if they wanted to.

“I also felt it was an opportunity to play some of the young lads because if I don’t give them a chance in these games, they’ve got every right to say ‘what’s the point of me being at the club?’ “These lads are actually signed on to the first-team squad and I need to see if they’re good enough. One lad, Harry Weeks, is 16 and was playing centre forward and the others are all under-18s. At their age you’d have to ask if they would get into the Horndean team. But, by the same token, the Horndean players wouldn’t be good enough to get into my first team. It shows that there’s a big gap there.”

While four successive defeats looks bad on paper, the reality is that Eastleigh sit 11th in non-League’s top flight, five points outside the play-offs with games in hand on all above.

“My remit was to try and get into the play-offs and the third round of the FA Cup. We got to the second round of the Cup and, if we now make the play-offs, would that be a failure?” asked Hill.

“All we’ve done is lost one league game (at Alfreton) and now we’ve got to go to Telford and make sure we don’t lose two.

“In my time, this season and last, we’ve never lost two league games on the spin.

“Greener, Reid and Evans have not trained all week and Strevens and Constable did some training yesterday. These lads are fit, but they wouldn’t be had they played.

“If I hadn’t shuffled the pack, we could have been without them tomorrow and, perhaps, one or two more.

“What’s the point of having a squad if, at times of adversity, you don’t use it?”

Telford, who sacked manager Liam Watson last weekend, had hoped to have a new man in place by tomorrow. That is now unlikely and caretakers Andy Todd and Andy Pryce are expected to continue.