Baird's praise for resolute defending
Ian Baird reflected on today’s victory over Staines Town, a 2-1 win at the Silverlake Stadium where goals from Jamie Slabber (18th minute) and Jamie Brown (25th) saw the Spitfires come from behind to seal all three points.
It was Eastleigh’s third win of the season and their first victory since the end of August where a 2-1 win at home was enough to beat Weston-super-Mare on bank holiday Monday.
Baird made just once change to the starting line-up from the side beaten in midweek by Paul Doswell’s high-flying Sutton United, with Jordace Holder-Spooner replacing Andrew White.
Eastleigh fell behind in the sixth minute of the game when former Spitfires defender Adam Everitt scored from a 50-yard speculative free kick which caught Barfoot off his goal line. Baird said: “He’s (Everitt) put the ball down, he’s seen Barfoot off his line and he’s hit a tremendous strike.
“From our point of view it’s ever so disappointing. You talk about things and you prepare, but once again we’ve conceded a goal in the first fifteen minutes of a game – it’s unacceptable. We’re not happy about that but tremendous credit to the lads they got ourselves back into it.
“If we’d gone in to half time at 4-1 I don’t think it would have been unjust.”
Jamie Slabber equalised in the 18th minute with a close range finish for his third goal of the season, following a high ball into the box and a flick on by Tom Jordan. Slabber was in the right place to find the net with a neat finish to put the Spitfires back on level terms.
Eastleigh then went 2-1 ahead midway through the first half when Jamie Brown was on hand to fire the ball into the net. In the build up to the goal Richard Gillespie linked up with Jordace Holder-Spooner who worked room for a shot and saw his effort from outside the box spilled by Staines goalkeeper Louis Wells. Brown made no mistake as the ball came out to him and his manager was full of praise for the experienced midfielder.
“Jamie’s Jamie isn’t he? You know you are always going to get 150 per cent effort off him and 150 per cent endeavour. For once the ball fell for us and he stuck it away, I’m pleased for Browner.”
Baird was not so happy with the performance but pleased with the result. “I thought apart from a 25 minute spell in the first half, I’d probably say that was the poorest we’ve retained the ball and looked after the ball.
“It certainly was backs to the wall for certain periods there but we had to take a pill at Sutton on Tuesday.
“Staines will probably feel that they deserved more than they got but we’ll take that little bit of luck, we haven’t had much of it.
“I said to the lads we caused our own problems really today, I didn’t think they really hurt us but I thought we defended resolutely, I thought we defended like men but believe you me there’s a hell of a lot of improvement.”
Reflecting on the second half, which was by no means a classic, Baird added: “Our second half performance we didn’t play well. We didn’t look after the ball and we didn’t retain it.
“Even though once again we’ve had another chance cleared off the line. I’m not happy with the performance but ever so happy about how we defended and stood up because we’ve stood up like real men today.”
Eastleigh have leap-frogged today’s opponents Staines Town to move into 18th place in the Blue Square South.
“All you can do is beat who’s in front of you and today we’ve taken three points,” said Baird.
“In my opinion we need thirteen wins and four draws to stay in this league. That’s our third win, we’ve had two draws. There’s a long, long way to go and we’ll be doing our best in every game possible.”
Next weekend Eastleigh have a third home game in a row for a Saturday fixture with Cinderford Town coming to the Silverlake Stadium for an FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round tie.
Speaking of the cup clash Baird said: “It hasn’t been on my mind, it won’t be on my mind tomorrow but we’ll start preparing for it on Tuesday. We’ve had Cinderford Town watched today and I shall be speaking to Steve Beck (scout) and we’ll see where we go from there.”
It was Eastleigh’s third win of the season and their first victory since the end of August where a 2-1 win at home was enough to beat Weston-super-Mare on bank holiday Monday.
Baird made just once change to the starting line-up from the side beaten in midweek by Paul Doswell’s high-flying Sutton United, with Jordace Holder-Spooner replacing Andrew White.
Eastleigh fell behind in the sixth minute of the game when former Spitfires defender Adam Everitt scored from a 50-yard speculative free kick which caught Barfoot off his goal line. Baird said: “He’s (Everitt) put the ball down, he’s seen Barfoot off his line and he’s hit a tremendous strike.
“From our point of view it’s ever so disappointing. You talk about things and you prepare, but once again we’ve conceded a goal in the first fifteen minutes of a game – it’s unacceptable. We’re not happy about that but tremendous credit to the lads they got ourselves back into it.
“If we’d gone in to half time at 4-1 I don’t think it would have been unjust.”
Jamie Slabber equalised in the 18th minute with a close range finish for his third goal of the season, following a high ball into the box and a flick on by Tom Jordan. Slabber was in the right place to find the net with a neat finish to put the Spitfires back on level terms.
Eastleigh then went 2-1 ahead midway through the first half when Jamie Brown was on hand to fire the ball into the net. In the build up to the goal Richard Gillespie linked up with Jordace Holder-Spooner who worked room for a shot and saw his effort from outside the box spilled by Staines goalkeeper Louis Wells. Brown made no mistake as the ball came out to him and his manager was full of praise for the experienced midfielder.
“Jamie’s Jamie isn’t he? You know you are always going to get 150 per cent effort off him and 150 per cent endeavour. For once the ball fell for us and he stuck it away, I’m pleased for Browner.”
Baird was not so happy with the performance but pleased with the result. “I thought apart from a 25 minute spell in the first half, I’d probably say that was the poorest we’ve retained the ball and looked after the ball.
“It certainly was backs to the wall for certain periods there but we had to take a pill at Sutton on Tuesday.
“Staines will probably feel that they deserved more than they got but we’ll take that little bit of luck, we haven’t had much of it.
“I said to the lads we caused our own problems really today, I didn’t think they really hurt us but I thought we defended resolutely, I thought we defended like men but believe you me there’s a hell of a lot of improvement.”
Reflecting on the second half, which was by no means a classic, Baird added: “Our second half performance we didn’t play well. We didn’t look after the ball and we didn’t retain it.
“Even though once again we’ve had another chance cleared off the line. I’m not happy with the performance but ever so happy about how we defended and stood up because we’ve stood up like real men today.”
Eastleigh have leap-frogged today’s opponents Staines Town to move into 18th place in the Blue Square South.
“All you can do is beat who’s in front of you and today we’ve taken three points,” said Baird.
“In my opinion we need thirteen wins and four draws to stay in this league. That’s our third win, we’ve had two draws. There’s a long, long way to go and we’ll be doing our best in every game possible.”
Next weekend Eastleigh have a third home game in a row for a Saturday fixture with Cinderford Town coming to the Silverlake Stadium for an FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round tie.
Speaking of the cup clash Baird said: “It hasn’t been on my mind, it won’t be on my mind tomorrow but we’ll start preparing for it on Tuesday. We’ve had Cinderford Town watched today and I shall be speaking to Steve Beck (scout) and we’ll see where we go from there.”
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