WITH four crucial matches remaining, they lie four points and five places above the relegation zone with the outcome of the next two fixtures at York City and Kidderminster Harriers critical.

Eastleigh, with 50 points, dare not lose either of them as York City have the same number of points following a 1-1 draw at Halifax in midweek. Woking and Ebbsfleet United are one behind on 49 points and Kidderminster 46. 

Wealdstone, whom Eastleigh visit in their penultimate game on April 16, have chalked up 47 points. 
Oxford City are already relegated, with Dorking Wanderers and Boreham Wood (in freefall) looking likely to go down as well, probably leaving one relegation place to be settled.

Eastleigh bungled a great opportunity of all but mathematically securing survival when they tossed away a two-goal lead and were beaten 3-2 by fellow strugglers Maidenhead United on Monday.
Two days earlier, on Good Friday, Eastleigh - buoyed by a superb goalkeeping display by Joe McDonnell - won 1-0 at Woking, where former Cards midfielder Solomon Nwabuokei headed a far post first half winner.

Two up against Maidenhead and in cruise control, Spitfires appeared to be headed towards the 53-point mark - potentially seven ahead of Kidderminster Harriers - but the early strikes by Nwabuokei and the impressive Chis Maguire ultimately came to nothing.

Maidenhead scored three time in the second half to add the Eastleigh win to their 4-0 triumph at Aldershot Town.

Disappointed Eastleigh manager Kelvin Davis reflected: "You know that (being 2-0 up) is a dangerous scoreline. You have to come out and stamp your authority on the second half early. You have to make sure the first thing you do in the second half is positive.

"You have got to resist the opposition because we know what (Maidenhead United) are capable of. We have seen enough of them. If you give them an opportunity, they will take it."

The former Saints goalkeeper insisted the players were understandably disappointed and were not able to deal with their concession of goals soon enough.

"We’re disappointed," he continued. "There’s no magic wand. We have had issues all season. We have conceded a lot of goals, 84 now. There’s been no secret about that.

"You can understand from the player's position and the psychological point of view that when you concede one, nerves and anxiety kick in a little bit.

"We have spoken about that in previous moments of how we should handle that and to keep the game simple and not allow a mistake to become another mistake which then snowballs into conceding a goal.

"We didn’t receive the message early enough and didn’t deal with the issue. Unfortunately, one thing led to another and we conceded three poor goals."

The result leaves Eastleigh 16th in the National League - only four points above the relegation places with plenty of work still to be done to achieve survival, starting at York City.

Spitfires top scorer Paul McCallum was a surprise absentee from the Eastleigh squad while goalkeeper Joe McDonnell had to pull out of the game in the warm-up. Both had back injuries.