EASTLEIGH visit Torquay United tomorrow (3pm) for a match that has the potential to shape the remainder of the Spitfires’ Vanarama National League season.

Chris Todd’s side’s recovery from a poor start to 2016 has been founded on a profitable month’s work at the Silverlake Stadium, writes Paul McNamara.

But having fallen five points adrift of the play-off spots, the Spitfires have little margin for error as they go back on their travels, if they are to stay alive in the promotion race.

Since slumping to a late defeat at Forest Green Rovers on February 20, Eastleigh have hoovered up 13 points from the 15 available in home matches. But Todd’s men did come unstuck at Braintree in their only match on the road during that period.

The two points dropped by the Spitfires on their own turf in March came in Friday’s frustrating scoreless draw with struggling Welling.

And Eastleigh boss Todd is determined that his side will not let that setback derail his team’s surge back up the table.

“It’s a test of our character now,” said Todd, following the Good Friday stalemate.

“We’re disappointed. The boys were a bit deflated in the changing room.

"But I said to them: ‘We’ll look for positives. It wasn’t meant to be today, but we can go and win at Torquay and then this result becomes a good result. You’ll have four points from six’.

“So we have to go there in a positive frame of mind and trying to win.”

Eastleigh will encounter a Torquay team smarting from a 5-0 thumping at Dover on Saturday.

That result extended the victors’ advantage over Todd’s team in the table to five points.

Prior to that hammering in Kent, which saw them slip back into the drop zone, the Gulls had been unbeaten in their previous eight league outings.

And Todd acknowledged, regardless of how Kevin Nicholson’s side would fare in their clash with Dover, that he will not be able to take his old club lightly tomorrow – a fact further driven home by the game fight put up against the Spitfires by Welling, a team now without a victory in 23 league matches.

“It is a tough league,” said Todd. “It doesn’t matter who you play, it’s always hard and nothing is given to you on a plate. We have to dig in now.

"We’ve got our eight remaining games to grind out as many results as we can and sneak into those play-offs.”

Given the gravity of the contest in Devon for his side, Todd is setting aside all emotion ahead of a return to the Plainmoor ground he called home for three years from 2007.

During his time as a player with Torquay, when tomorrow’s opposite number Nicholson was a teammate, Todd won the 2009 Conference Premier (today’s National League) play-offs and appeared in the previous year’s FA Trophy final.

“It’s just another game for us - and for myself,” insists Todd. “It is a very important game. It will be nice to go back and see the fans but I’ll be fully concentrated on trying to get the win.”

Todd admitted on Friday that he would be taking advantage of a weekend’s thinking time to consider his line-up for the game.

The Eastleigh manager revealed that new signing James Granger is unlikely to feature tomorrow, before adding: “We’ve got a couple of players back from suspension (Ben Strevens and Paul Reid), so there’s a lot to think about selection-wise. I’ll be pondering that over the weekend.”