RICHARD Hill believes the exertions of having to bank 15 points from their last five games of an amazing Vanarama Conference season may have caught up with his team in the play-offs.

Hill was quick to give Grimsby Town credit for their 5-1 aggregate win over the Spitfires in the play-off semi-finals, but feels the mental and physical toll on his side might have been greater than he thought.

“It’s not an excuse, but you look back on things and how we got into the play-offs and the five games we won could have taken more out of us than I thought, both physically and emotionally,” he said.

“But give Grimsby some credit. That’s four times they’ve beaten us this season and, to be fair to them, they’ve done a right good job on us.”

After falling behind in less than three minutes at the Silverlake Stadium on Thursday, it was imperative the Spitfires got off to a strong start if they were to stand any hope of overturning a 2-1 first-leg deficit.

It was mission accomplished in that respect with Eastleigh dominating the first 30 minutes with a controlled display of football.

But once ex-Havant & Waterlooville frontman Ollie Palmer had fired the Mariners in front against the run of play, Eastleigh’s confidence waned and when an unfortunate slip by defender Will Evans allowed Lenell John-Lewis – the man named after a shop – to make it two Grimsby goals for the price of one, the Spitfires had a mountain to climb.

Hill made a brave triple substitution at half-time, throwing on Deon Burton, Dan Walker and Yemi Odubade to give them more width and attacking options but, by the manager’s own admission, it didn’t work.

Palmer – who has now scored four times against Eastleigh this season – added another to get the “Wembley” chants in full flow from the bulk of the 6,286 crowd.

Explaining his decision to withdraw Harry Pell, Brian Howard and James Constable, Hill said: “I had to have a go and take a gamble.

“The problem we had today was that we were great for half-hour but then we just started to rush things.

“We’d been quite calculated to that point and quite methodical and if Beano (James Constable) gets his head to that one early on, it could have been a totally different game. Who knows?

“But we started to rush things and we stopped giving the ball to Brian Howard who’d been making us play.

“I don’t think Grimsby expected us to go with the shape we did and it worked for a while until we started rushing things. Then we made two mistakes and, like I’ve said all season, you do that at this level and you get punished.

“At half-time I had to try and force the game in our favour, but it didn’t work.

“If people want to criticise me for that then they can, but I just tried to get Yemi and Walker to give us more width.

“I don’t like forcing things like that, I just thought we might nick another goal (after Thursday’s) and make the game a bit edgy.

“It either works or it doesn’t and, if it does, you look a genius.

“But this is the play-offs you have to remember. It’s another step up. If you make a mistake in the league you get punished, but in the play-offs it’s worse.”