MANAGER Ben Strevens calls for “integrity of the league and teams in the league” as he admits having an extended COVID-induced break was a “factor” in Eastleigh’s win over Torquay.

The Spitfires came from behind to score twice in the second-half and secure a 2-1 win over Gary Johnson’s in-form side, who had taken the lead before the interval.

Torquay had been in action 48 hours earlier when they defeated Yeovil Town 3-0 on Boxing Day, but Strevens’ men didn’t have a game after Weymouth saw two matches postponed for COVID cases in their playing squad.

The gaffer gave an honest reflection of the victory and called upon the league to make sure its members are “doing the right things” when it comes to postponing games.

“It’s certainly a factor that they played 48 hours ago and we didn’t,” Strevens told the club website.

“But we wanted to play 48 hours ago. It’s going to come down to the integrity of the league and the teams in the league to do the right things.

“We didn’t want to have extra rest on Torquay, certainly if I was Gary Johnson I’d be thinking ‘well, we played Boxing Day and now we’re here’.

“We got the ascendancy in the second-half but their levels probably dropped and ours got stronger, which is the nature of football.”

He continued: “That’s got to come down to managers of football clubs doing the right things.

“If you’ve genuinely got lots of COVID cases then games get called off, if there’s other things going on to make sure the games don’t go on then that comes down to integrity and how you want to do things.

“I feel for them today, we’ve had longer rest than them and it’s a factor, we had better energy levels in the second-half.”