WILL Evans will be fit to take his place in the Eastleigh squad for tomorrow’s Vanarama Conference test at FC Halifax Town.

But the versatile defender played on in discomfort after falling victim to the X-rated tackle which saw Lincoln City reduced to ten men last Saturday as the Spitfires soared into the play-off zone with a 4-0 home win.

The 23-year-old was left with studmarks from his ankle to his knee after copping the full force of Jon Nolan’s dangerously high and mistimed challenge.

It was so bad that it even drew condemnation from Imps boss Chris Moyses, who said: “It was reckless. There is no point defending it, I’m not even going to try.”

Applauding Moyses for his honesty, Eastleigh manager Richard Hill said: “Managers are the same as fans, they look for something to blame if things don’t go right, but you can’t defend the indefensible.

“If it had been the other way round and one of my players had made that tackle I’d have taken him off if he hadn’t been sent off because something like that could end a career.

“Will’s not trained again this week. He was in a lot of pain at the time and he’s still quite sore.”

Evans, deployed at right-back, was in fine form against Lincoln - even if he did have the dubious distinction of being the third different Spitfire to miss a penalty on a surreal afternoon in Stoneham Lane.

The former Swindon and Hereford man has not had the best of luck with injuries since joining Eastleigh two summers ago, but he is starting to produce what Hill always knew he was capable of.

“I’ve been waiting for this to happen, it’s not come as any surprise,” said the boss. “Will didn’t have the best of starts with injury and it’s taken a bit longer for him to get a couple of decent games under his belt, but he’s a good player. He’s 6ft 4in, he’s an athlete, he’s got strength and what everyone forgets is that he’s 23 and still a baby.

“Will’s a pleasure to work with. I know it’s a cliché, but if I had a daughter – which I don’t – I’d want him to be my son-in-law.”

Left-back Michael Green sits out the second of a two-match ban tomorrow as Eastleigh target a season’s double over Halifax, having beaten them 4-1 on home soil in October.

The Shaymen, just two points behind the fifth-placed Spitfires in eighth, have two players starting three-match suspensions tomorrow having finished their midweek 2-1 win at Dartford with nine men.

Lois Maynard was dismissed at the end of the first half with the score 1-1 and, after sub Scott Boden had put the ten men ahead from the spot, James Bolton followed him down the tunnel, having also seen a straight red.

Hill, who went to watch the game, said: “They had two sent off, one forward and one defender, but they’ll still have 11 players tomorrow and it’s going to be a tough game a long way from home.

“But we’re going to be in the Conference Premier – minimum – next season and to still have all to play for in the second week of January is amazing.

“Last week it was our turn to make the headlines for something quite bizarre (missing three penalties) and some of the fans are blaming me for that. But nobody has yet said that we’re sitting fifth in the Conference playing decent football so he must be doing all right!”