Dave Challinor’s league leaders are on the road again this weekend, as we journey down to Hampshire to take on Eastleigh looking to equal a club record 21-game unbeaten run.
Tuesday night’s comfortable 3-0 win at King’s Lynn Town saw us go ten points clear at the top of the National League table, following defeats elsewhere for Chesterfield and Halifax Town, away at Altrincham and Wrexham respectively.
Halifax make the trip to King’s Lynn themselves this weekend, whilst fellow title challengers Wrexham are at home to already relegated Dover Athletic.
A win for County on Saturday would see us equal another club record run of ten consecutive wins in all competitions – a record set just eleven games ago.
Eastleigh meanwhile lost narrowly 1-0 at home to Dagenham & Redbridge on Tuesday thanks to Paul McCallum’s first-half strike, a result that saw the Spitfires fall to 19th in the table after a difficult recent run of form.
Since we last met:
Our first meeting with Eastleigh this season came back in January, with strikes from Paddy Madden and Connor Jennings, plus an own goal from Andrew Boyce, securing County a 3-0 win under the lights at Edgeley Park.
That defeat followed on from a 4-0 hammering at Halifax in their previous league game, and just one week later the Club parted company with manager Ben Strevens following a 1-0 loss away at Dover – the bottom sides only league win of the season so far.
Strevens, who won the National League South title with the club as a player, departed with the Spitfires in 14th, bringing to an end a three year spell in charge at Silverlake Stadium in which he’d led the club to 7th, 17th and 9th place finishes.
The Club waited over a month before appointing a permanent replacement, with their form continuing to plummet under caretaker boss Jason Bristow in the meantime with no wins and four defeats from his seven games in interim charge.
Eventually, the Spitfires turned to former Bournemouth manager Lee Bradbury, who left his role as assistant manager to John Yems at League Two Crawley Town for his first managerial role since leaving Eastbourne Borough in 2019.
He couldn’t have asked for a much better start to his tenure in charge either, as the Hampshire side ended their winless run with a 4-1 hammering of Wealdstone at The Silverlake Stadium.
Despite hopes that may prove to be lift-off for the Spitfires under their new manager, the form has come crashing back down since then with three successive defeats – including a 4-0 thrashing at Altrincham and a 5-3 defeat at play-off chasing Solihull Moors. It leaves them with just one win in their last 14 National League fixtures heading into this game.
Nine of those games have come away from home, where the side have had a dreadful record with just two wins and eight points on their travels all season – only Dover have a worse record.
Their record at the Silverlake Stadium, to their credit, has been strong throughout the campaign, with just four defeats at home so far – form that has seen them stay remain well clear of the drop zone despite that wretched recent run, with 15 points between themselves and Weymouth in 21st.
One to Watch:
25-year-old midfielder Jake Hesketh was a surprise signing at The Silverlake Stadium in the Summer, joining the Club after 17 years at Southampton, where he came through the Academy ranks.
Stockport-born Hesketh has had spells out on loan at Burton, MK Dons, Lincoln and Crawley in the EFL, and made two Premier League appearances for The Saints as an 18-year-old, starting a game against Burnley in 2014.
It hasn’t quite gone to plan yet for the midfielder during his time at Eastleigh, with just one goal to his name in the league so far, but there is no doubting his talent and ability on his day.
Match Stats:
- This will be the fourth meeting between County and Eastleigh, with the home side triumphing on each of the previous three occasions. A Joe Tomlinson penalty earned Eastleigh a 1-0 win at the Silverlake last season, after a first-half red card for Harvey Gilmour that was later overturned.
- Ben Hinchliffe’s clean sheet on Tuesday night was his 99th for the Club in all competitions – his next clean sheet will see him become the first goalkeeper in the club’s history to reach 100.
- A win tomorrow would see us equal our longest ever unbeaten run (21 games in 2018/19) and our longest winning streak (10 games earlier this season), as well as set a new club record for consecutive away wins (nine).
