Trophy debutants Eastleigh are safely through to the first round after beating Great Wakering Rovers 3-0 at Ten Acres.

It earns Paul Doswell's men a November 1 trip to Dr Martens Eastern Division rivals Erith & Belvedere, who they knocked out of the FA Cup during their Wessex hey-day last season.

Kevin Gibbens got the show on the road with his first goal for the club in the 24th minute. Young defender Robbie Chamberlain launched a long throw which was flicked on by Paul Sales for the ex-Saint to tuck away.

After 54 minutes Tyronne Bowers, a summer signing from Salisbury, gave a glimpse of his potential with a cracking shot from the edge of the box.

Bowers, who has taken time to settle at his new club, celebrated with some trademark back-flips and Doswell smiled: "The more of those I see this season the better."

It wasn't all one-way traffic as skipper Daniel Scopes and Glen Bennett went close for Great Wakering, but Eastleigh killed the tie off when David Hughes made a late run to finish off a left-wing delivery from fellow ex-Saint Nicky Banger.

Great Wakering had been thumped 9-0 the previous week, but Doswell admitted: "They weren't that bad a side and I was at pains to tell the lads not to underestimate them because they'd had that poor result.

"When I spoke to their manager he said they'd had nine or ten players out for that game, but quite a few of them were back against us."

The down side of Eastleigh's day was losing midfielder Danny Woods again to an ankle injury after just ten minutes.