EASTLEIGH’S semi-final opponents Grimsby Town are the only play-off side the Spitfires have failed to prise a point off this season in the Vanarama Conference.

But while the Mariners will be a tough nut to crack from a playing point of view, Spitfires chairman Stewart Donald reckons Thursday’s home leg (7.45pm) will be easier to organise from a club perspective than if it had been against league runners-up Bristol Rovers.

Not only are Rovers just 100 miles away, as opposed to Grimsby’s 225, but they are easily the best supported club in non-League’s top tier.

“From an off-the-field point of view, it’s better to have Grimsby than Bristol Rovers because we’ll be able to manage the game more easily,” said Donald.

“The demand for tickets from Rovers would probably have been too much for us, so from that perspective we’re delighted it’s Grimsby.

“I would expect Grimsby to bring about 1,000 fans with them. Rovers would have brought 1,500, which is as many as we could allow. But that would probably have left 2,000 Rovers fans trying to buy tickets in the home end.”

With Richard Hill’s team standing 180 minutes away from a possible Wembley promotion final, Spitfires fans can barely contain their excitement.

Donald could not be prouder of the team finishing fourth in their debut Conference season, but says the difficult part is finding time amid the “whirlwind” of behind-the-scenes activity to actually savour the moment.

In the midst of dealing with ticket applications for Thursday, Eastleigh have already shifted 500 season tickets for the 2015/16 season – 400 renewals and 100 new ones.

“It’s all going at 100 miles an hour and you’ve got to try and take a step back and enjoy it,” said Donald.

“You come into the last game of the league season (against Kidderminster) gearing up for a 4,000 crowd and then you’ve got three or four days to organise the play-offs.

“You get wrapped up in it, but you’ve also got to make sure you enjoy it because that’s what we’re in it for.

“We’ve had two wonderful years, but this is just a busy time now. It feels like a whirlwind.”

Tickets for Thursday’s game are on sale at the Silverlake.

Terrace/standing tickets are £15 adults, £10 concessions, £5 under-16s. For seats in the Mackoy Community/West Stand it’s £20 adults, £15 concession and £10 for under-16s.

Grimsby have been given an allocation of 1,015 tickets for Thursday – 715 seated and 300 standing.

The Mariners will host the return leg at Blundell Park on Sunday (3.30pm). Both matches will be screened live on BT Sport.