Eastleigh look to bounce back following Hampshire derby disappointment against in-form Solihull Moors

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After suffering a hammering by their Hampshire counterparts Aldershot at the weekend, Ben Strevens’ side face a Solihull Moors team riding a three-game winning streak and making a serious play-off charge. 

The National League continues to throw up plenty of thrills and spills this season, so perhaps Eastleigh, being handed a 3-0 home loss to a lowly Aldershot Town after impressive victories over Notts County and Dagenham & Redbridge, shouldn’t be considered that surprising in this unpredictable division. 

A blunt attacking performance, as well as a second half collapse courtesy of some calamitous defending, left many fans fed up with a sizeable portion of the fanbase aiming the question marks towards Spitfires manager and former player Ben Strevens. 

Despite this, there will be a level of confidence from the players coming into this home game as Eastleigh have made the Silverlake Stadium somewhat of a fortress in earning five of their seven victories this season on home turf.

Also, having recently dispatched of Notts County in front of the home fans, the Spitfires will look to recreate such a performance in Tuesday’s games against Solihull 

On the other hand, the Moors have had an impressive first half of their season, losing just four times in 19 matches with two of those losses coming against teams above them in the table.

As such, the West Midlands outfit find themselves very much in the play-off conversation and are currently sitting in seventh position.

This run has been helped to no end by a breakthrough season for former Burton Albion youngster Joe Sbarra, who has helped himself to 11 goals in 19 National League appearances from midfield.

Solihull’s 4-0 rout at struggling Maidenhead United was a testament to the sort of form they are in with waves of attacks causing the Magpies to capitulate. This result against Maidenhead came off the back of two impressive home wins at Damson Park over Grimsby Town and Woking.

Everyone was looking to get in on the act at York Road with four different goalscorers including the man of the moment Joe Sbarra and a marvellously mazy run leading to a goal for 20-year-old Harry Boyes. 

With fixtures coming thick and fast in all competitions, it will be interesting to see who Ben Strevens opts for in an attacking sense with the physical presence of players like Tyrone Barnett and Danny Whitehall or the attacking flair of players such as Ben House and former Southampton starlet Jake Hesketh. 

Under Neal Ardley’s stewardship, the Moors have proven they can be diverse in how they set up for games, often switching between 4-2-3-1 and a regular 4-4-2 whilst occasionally converting to a back three system. 

Three points are always precious in any league, but in this respect, a win for Eastleigh would help stretch the gap between them and the bottom three as well as keep the Spitfires close enough to the play-offs. For Solihull, it is all about keeping their place in the top seven with victory at the Silverlake Stadium guaranteeing that and potentially lifting them as high as second if results go their way.