RICHARD Hill won’t be afraid to shuffle his Eastleigh pack again for tomorrow's televised Vanarama Conference nail-biter at Lincoln City.

The Spitfires boss made one enforced change for Tuesday’s timely 2-0 win at Halifax, bringing in Will Evans at centre-half in place of Paul Reid who broke a rib against Alfreton last Saturday.

His other change was a tactical one swayed by the uneven nature of the worn-out Shay pitch.

With pretty football off the menu, Hill opted for the physical presence of targetman Craig McAllister over the creative skills of midfielder Brian Howard.

Whether ex-Barnsley and Reading man Howard will be back in the starting line-up tomorrow as fourth-placed Eastleigh look to cement their play-off spot in front the BT Sport cameras at Sincil Bank (12.15pm kick-off) remains to be seen.

“I’ll take my time deciding what team to pick and if I think it’s right to change it, I will,” said Hill.

“But Brian Howard showed on Tuesday what a true professional he is.

“He’s been a bit frustrated with me for not playing him in as many games as he’d like, but we’re not playing on Premier League or Championship pitches which are the same every week.

“I always felt that when the pitches got a bit firmer, Brian would be able to express what a good player he is and he went to Gateshead and did well and I also thought he played very well at Welling.

“But looking at the Halifax pitch, I didn’t think it would be right to play him and, to be fair to Brian, he accepted that, sat on bench and supported the team like a fan.

“I spoke to him yesterday and he said that as soon as he saw the pitch, he didn’t think I’d play him.”

Eastleigh must wait and see if skipper Dean Beckwith is fully over his stomach bug, but Reid and left-back Michael Green (hamstring) are almost certainly out.

“Paul Reid fractured his rib against Alfreton, but he’s a tough pro and he carried on playing for last 15 minutes,” Hill revealed.

“Dean Beckwith is an athlete and professional sportsman, but he told me he didn’t feel right to play on Tuesday and, having had that sickness bug myself, I can understand it.

“I had the choice of putting Will Evans in at right-back and moving Joe Partington to centre-half, but I decided to leave Joe where he was.

“He’s only ever played three games at right-back, but he looks like he’s played there all his career.

“The two lads at centre-back (Evans and Jamie Turley) did very, very well. We did everything right at Halifax, it was a very professional performance.”

With a superior goal difference of 12 over sixth-placed Macclesfield, who are two points behind, four points from Lincoln tomorrow and Kidderminster at home next Saturday (5.15pm) should get Eastleigh over the line.

But Hill remains cautious, saying: “We’ve given ourselves a chance, but I still think we’re the outsiders.

“You’d expect Macclesfield to beat Dartford tomorrow and Forest Green to beat Gateshead, so it could all go to the last game.

“We’ve got to try and make sure it’s still in our own hands and we’re not relying on anyone else to do us a favour.”

Despite Hill’s best efforts to keep it all low-key, the Spitfires will be right under the spotlight tomorrow on BT Sport. “Me being me, I wouldn’t have chosen it, but this will be the third time Eastleigh have been on telly, which is something we could only have dreamed of 12 months ago,” he said.