Eastleigh manager Richard Hill declared the postponement of their Vanarama Conference match against Lincoln City on Saturday as a blessing in disguise.

A sauna explosion at the Hilton Hotel in Chilworth, where the Imps were staying before heading to the Silverlake Stadium, meant that the players’ equipment, including boots, was inaccessible while around 60 fire-fighters battled the resulting blaze.

Originally, the kick off was delayed by an hour to 4pm, as it was thought that the Imps staff and players would be able to get their gear by 2.30pm.

But it became apparent, as the Silverlake started to fill up with supporters, that they would not make it in time for the rearranged kick off time.

In fact with talk of a much later start, the decision was made to postpone the game and organise it for later in the season – a date has yet to be announced for that.

“What can we do? It’s circumstance,” said Hill. “It was my concern that it wasn’t ideal preparation.

“I’ve got 18 players that have been hanging around for four hours.

“Football is about preparing right.

“Your diet comes into that, so the diet that you’ve prepared ready to kick off at 3pm doesn’t matter anymore.

“It’s gone, so you’re then trying to prepare players for a later kick off, which is tricky.

“I expressed that if it went past 4pm then I wouldn’t be comfortable with the game going ahead.

“And, likewise, had we been in a car park up at Lincoln I wouldn’t have wanted my lads to play.

“It was taken out of my hands because they couldn’t get in their hotel for another couple of hours.

“After that common sense has prevailed.”

After winning their FA Cup first round tie 2-1 against Chris Moyses’ outfit last weekend thanks to a Ben Strevens last minute goal, the Spitfires extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to six games.

They were looking to build on that on Lincoln’s return, who are still looking for their first win under new boss Moyses and are in the bottom half of the Conference.

While Hill was obviously frustrated, he took as many as positives as possible from the events.

“Obviously they’re (the players) disappointed because Saturday’s are when they get to play,” said Hill.

“It’s a bit of godsend to be fair, though.

“I’m a believer that you have to try and turn a negative into a positive.

“We had a tough game last weekend against Lincoln.

“We’ve had a busy week, so it gives us another little bit of a rest.”

With the recent run of games, some of the Spitfires players have been playing despite carrying knocks.

But with this unplanned break, it could have come at a good time for Eastleigh.

“We’ve got lads in there that, just give them a little bit longer, will recover,” said Hill.

“Michael Green, as published, is playing with an injury.

“Craig McAllister had a bug that lasted for 48 hours and I could only put him on the pitch for 20 minutes on Tuesday (against Forest Green).

“Credit to McAllister, he came on and gave his all.

“The postponement has given him a little bit longer; it’s given Jack Midson a little bit longer. Ross Flitney’s got a tight groin and it’s given him a bit longer.

“It’s given us all a little bit longer to have a rest and take the pressure off us. Take a step back. We’ve had a fantastic spell.

“You want to keep the momentum but you have to balance that out with rest.

“Because we’re all picking up niggling injuries, it just gives you time to recount things.”