EASTLEIGH have played better, but Saturday’s priceless 3-1 victory over Alfreton Town was a credit to their powers of concentration.

Richard Hill’s men had a variety of distractions to contend with as they edged to within one point of the Vanarama Conference play-offs with a game in hand.

Kick-off had to be put back half-an-hour because the Derbyshire visitors’ team coach had conked out on the M40.

And to compound that delay, there was a bizarre, six-minute hold-up in play, waiting for a groundsman to appear with a bucket and spade to fill in a hole caused by a faulty sprinkler head near the centre circle.

A fragmented afternoon of football also saw Eastleigh concede a goal they were convinced hadn’t crossed the line.

And Alfreton played the last 20 minutes with ten men after Bradley Wood – making his 100th Reds appearance – marred the occasion by picking up a second yellow for a foul which left home defender Jamie Turley with a bloody nose.

Due to the stop-start nature of proceedings, referee Nicholas Kinseley didn’t blow the final whistle at a sunny Silverlake until 5.30pm.

And that meant the sixth-placed Spitfires played the second half with the added pressure of knowing they daren’t drop points because, just above them, Forest Green Rovers had already beaten Macclesfield 3-1.

Had Eastleigh lost, their play-off destiny would have been out of their own hands. Instead, they can play their game in hand at FC Halifax tomorrow knowing a win will catapult them to the heady heights of fourth with just two games left to play.

Given all the delays and interruptions, Eastleigh weren’t at their fluent best, but a Joe Partington header, a Ben Strevens penalty and a heavily-deflected Craig Stanley strike got the job done.

Manager Richard Hill admitted afterwards: “We played better football last week (in a 1-0 home defeat by Dover) and we didn’t win that game.

“But today we were quite professional and, had the game been away from home, you’d have said it was a very good performance.

“Because we kicked off late, we knew the other results and that put a bit more pressure on us knowing we had to win.”

Hill agreed it was a somewhat unusual afternoon for his players, but said: “They’re footballers and they have to cope with any eventuality. When you’ve got experienced guys like we have, you hope they can deal with it – and they did. If you can cope (in situations like that) you end up having a good career. If not, you fall by the wayside.

“Our lads have been great again and what I don’t think people actually realise is that we’ve now picked up 22 points from the last 11 games.”

Alfreton didn’t roll up at Stoneham Lane until 3pm, giving them just half an hour to shake the 175-mile journey out of their system.

The game was a slow starter but when Partington headed home Jai Reason’s cross in the 21st-minute, the stage looked set for Eastleigh to take command.

But, just four minutes later, they were rocked back on their heels when Karl Hawley’s finish from Joe Leesley’s corner was given the green light by the officials, even though Eastleigh were convinced the ball hadn’t crossed the line.

The Spitfires needn’t have worried, however. They were gifted the lead again on 32 minutes when Strevens coolly converted from the spot after Simon Lenighan had needlessly wrestled Reason over on the far right of the area.

Reminiscent of the Dover game, Eastleigh conjured up several more chances but lacked a killer touch, meaning victory hovered on a knife-edge until the 88th minute.

Stanley unloaded a shot from the right of the area which took a huge deflection before looping past wrong-footed keeper Tom Flynn.

“I felt at half-time that we weren’t playing with enough tempo and it was a bit mundane,” admitted Hill.

“We should have got on the front foot a bit more because, at 2-1, we were sailing by the seat of our pants a bit and we needed another goal.

“But, at the end of the day, we’ve come through it and it sets us up for the next game.”