EASTLEIGH manager Matt Gray was left fuming after his side were “nowhere near” expectations following a 1-0 friendly loss to Crawley Town.
The Spitfires ended their home pre-season tests without a win after a scrappy contest with their League Two visitors on Saturday afternoon.
Gray was initially pleased with his outfit’s displays against Championship neighbours Saints and Ligue 3 guests Valenciennes in the last week.
With two more tests on the road before their league campaign commences, the former Sutton United boss has claimed there is work to be done.
“I’m not happy at all, and there are a lot of things I’m not happy with. It was a very poor game, the whole thing lacked quality,” Gray raged at full-time.
Eastleigh gaffer Matt Gray was furious after their loss to Crawley today, as well he might after their flat performance.
"Very poor game...lacked all quality"
No wins this pre-season for the Spitfires. Work to do before the campaign starts in two weeks.#Spitfires— Declan West (@Dec_West15) July 25, 2026
“Last week, I saw a good performance against Southampton. It highlighted a lot of what we needed to work on.
“I like to be on the front foot, aggressive, and hard to play against. Playing with a tempo, energy and purpose. I don’t think any of that was there today.
“I'm grafting with others to get players in, which I desperately need to get us to some sort of resemblance of what a Matt Gray team looks like. At the moment, it's nowhere near it. "
Gray went on to stress the importance of adding depth to his squad in the remaining transfer window, but reaffirmed that the performance was not up to scratch.
“There were probably five players that weren’t here today that normally would be, plus four or five that I’m looking to sign.
“If you remove those, of course we don’t look close to the finished article. That’s not an excuse though, I saw things out there today that I will not accept.
“No disrespect to the youth team lads either. They tried really hard today and showed moments of quality, I was very impressed.
“But, on the whole, we need to be better. The biggest positive I'm taking out of it is that I've still got two weeks to sort this out.”
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