IF Luke Southwood joined Eastleigh on loan to put himself in the shop window, it’s working!

The young Reading goalkeeper reportedly has a cluster of clubs monitoring his progress with a view to a potential summer move.

Hull City are said to be scouting him and reports suggest that MK Dons, Swindon Town and Oxford United all have him on their radar.

A former England youth player, 21-year-old Southwood was part of the squad that won the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in South Korea in 2017.

He joined Eastleigh, initially on a month’s loan, just after Christmas following Max Stryjek’s return to Sunderland.

That arrangement has been extended to the end of the season with the Spitfires having won six of ten National League games since Southwood’s introduction.

He was the first visiting No1 this season to have kept a clean sheet at Salford City a fortnight ago as Eastleigh soared to fifth.

They dropped to seventh following last weekend’s 1-0 home upset against Halifax, which ended a run of five league wins, and slipped another place into eighth as a result of Tuesday night’s games.

But being one point outside the play-offs with 11 games to go is no mean feat in manager Ben Strevens’ eyes and he will lead his side to Chesterfield on Saturday (3pm) still brimming with positivity.

“If you’d said after Solihull (a 4-1 away defeat) that we’d get 15 points from the next 18, we’d have taken that,” he said.

“When I took over we were maybe one point or goal difference ahead of the teams in tenth and 11th, but we’ve got a nice gap now and we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance.

“There’s probably four or five of us – Eastleigh, Sutton, Harrogate, Gateshead, Ebbsfleet – fighting for (the last) two play-off places.

“Losing last week was disappointing, but we came across a Halifax side at their best. They had another good win on Tuesday and beat Barnet 3-0.

“The first half we were very good, but credit to them for the way they defended.

“Second half we didn’t play well. As a collective we weren’t good enough.

"But the boys have been very good for large periods of the season and I can give them 45 minutes when they’re not quite up to standard.

"It’s just unfortunate that a bad 45 minutes cost us the game.”

Defender Reda Johnson is making progress from a hamstring injury but, with two home games to come next week – Maidstone United (Tuesday, 7.45pm) and Barrow (Saturday, 3pm) – Strevens won’t take any risks.

Left wing-back Michael Green missed training earlier in the week after exiting the Halifax game with cramp late on.

“Greener wasn’t his normal self and he’s been struggling with illness this week,” Strevens explained.

“When Halifax started doubling up on Yeatesy (Mark Yeates), it was important Greener got beyond him to get crosses in, but he didn’t have the energy to do it.

“We’ve had a few tired bodies with the same boys playing week after week and it’s my job to see who’s feeling OK. Maybe I’ll change things up a bit over the next three games and use all of them.”

Chesterfield, 16th, are making giant strides under new manager John Sheridan who replaced ex-Eastleigh boss Martin Allen with the club in the bottom four.

The Spireites won 3-1 at Braintree on Tuesday, hauling themselves seven points clear of the drop zone.