RICHARD Hill reckons “outsiders” Eastleigh have been handicapped with the toughest run-in going into the last furlong of the Vanarama Conference play-off chase.

If the Spitfires play their game-in-hand trump card successfully at FC Halifax Town tonight, they will leapfrog both Forest Green Rovers and Macclesfield into fourth spot with two games to go.

But a midweek slog to The Shay is never easy and, with another “horrible” assignment to come at Lincoln City on Saturday (BT Sport, 12.15pm), followed by a home game against Kidderminster Harriers on April 25, manager Hill stressed: “We’ve got it all to do.

“If you could hand pick your run-in, you wouldn’t have chosen those three games and, in my opinion, we’re looking like the outsiders now.”

Forest Green – currently fourth on 74 points – face a trip to injury-ravaged Gateshead this Saturday before entertaining a Dover outfit whose play-off dream dissolved 3-1 at Chester.

Meanwhile Macclesfield – a point adrift of fourth spot and one ahead of sixth-placed Eastleigh after losing 3-1 at Forest Green – host lowly Dartford before visiting mid-table Torquay on the last day.

“Macclesfield have by far the easiest games and should win them both,” declared Hill. “You’d expect them to beat Dartford, while Torquay’s season is over. I’m not saying (Torquay boss) Chris Hargreaves would play a weakened team, but I dare say he’d rather Macclesfield and Forest Green got into the play-offs than us.

“Forest Green go to Gateshead who, but for their unbelievable injury list, would have been in the play-offs themselves. But they’ve still got injuries and they had a player sent off at the weekend too. No disrespect to Gateshead, but it’s a good time to play them and I’d also expect Forest Green to beat Dover who have nothing to play for.

“I’m sure Forest Green will be disappointed if they don’t get six points.

“Out of the three of us, omitting Woking (in seventh), I’d say we’ve got the hardest games left and I’d imagine the other teams are looking at us feeling glad they haven’t got our run-in.

“We’ve got to keep an eye on Woking too. They’ve also got Halifax, but I’d rather play Halifax at home than away.”

Bar the odd hiccup, Eastleigh have maintained impressively high standards in recent weeks, banking 22 points from their last 11 outings.

They now need two wins and a draw from their final three to be nailed on for the play-offs in their first season as a top-flight club.

“Seven points from three games would guarantee it, so we’ve got to do even better now than averaging two points a game,” said Hill.

“If we do get those seven points, we’ll have got 29 from 14 games which would be a better average than Barnet and Bristol Rovers at the top.

“Saturday’s result put us on the back foot a bit with Forest Green beating Macclesfield and, debating it now, we needed that one to be a draw.

“We’re the outsiders, but we’ve been chasing since October, just hanging on and hanging on.”

With skipper and centre-back Dean Beckwith recovered from a sickness bug, Hill expects to travel with a full squad today.

They face a Halifax side whose own outside play-off hopes were blitzed 3-0 at leaders Barnet. Disappointed Shay boss Neil Aspin lamented afterwards: “I thought we’d give them a good game, but instead we were a bag of nerves. It’s the worst performance I’ve seen since I’ve been manager.”