New Milton & District were knocked off their London 3 South-West perch by a clinical Eastleigh performance.

Milton’s stay at the top lasted just a week as Eastleigh ran in four tries to romp home 37-0 at their Bishopstoke Road base.

Even when battling New Milton did have the chance to cross the line in the second half, a try-saving tackle by Eastleigh captain Paul Fudio thwarted their efforts.

Most of the home side’s scoring was done in the first 40 minutes with a single converted try coming after the break.

Early Eastleigh pressure gave them three penalty attempts and winger Jon Lynch nailed all of them.

Milton had a player sinbinned for ten minutes and shortly afterwards scrum half Ramsey Lind crashed over and Lynch converted.

Lynch added the extras to another from full back Chris Cove who chipped over a Milton winger and collected the ball to touch down.

Eastleigh’s best try of the game came just before half-time – the ball was moved through quick hands from one side of the pitch and back again before Cove scored his second under the posts and Lynch converted.

New Milton fought to get on the scoreboard after the break but determined defending kept them at bay until Jack Curtis brought up the bonus point try – Matt Blackman converting to complete the scoring.

Eastleigh have three bonus point victories from as many games and are new leaders of SW3.

Head coach Andy Boyes said: “This was an excellent team performance.”

“As coaches, our only regret is we should have scored more points in the second half but it is always difficult when you have such a good margin at half time.

“We’re starting to build some real strength in depth now; selection is going to be interesting over the coming weeks as we have five of last season’s regular first team players returning.”

Eastleigh man of match was prop Adam Payne.