RICHARD Hill lamented the fact that his Eastleigh side didn’t start performing until late in the game, after the Spitfires’ 1-0 defeat at Chester yesterday.

Home centre-half Ben Heneghan was left unmarked to head home John Rooney’s 11th minute free-kick at the Deva Stadium - a goal that proved enough to leave Eastleigh winless in four league outings, writes Paul McNamara.

Joe Partington, Yemi Odubade, Ross Lafayette and Lee Cook all come close to levelling matters in the final half-hour, but Hill conceded that his team’s grandstand finish was too little, too late.

“We played for the last 25 minutes and thought it was enough,” said Hill. “It’s not enough. We’re ok with the ball, but we need to play better without the ball.

“I think the quality’s there, but we don’t play without the ball. I’ve just spoken to the lads about that. It’s ok playing with the ball, but when you haven’t got the ball you have to play even harder.”

Hill found support for his belief that the Spitfires’ attacking play is in rude health, in Chester skipper Ian Sharps, who was at Tranmere Rovers during the Eastleigh boss’s stint on the Wirral.

“I’ve just spoken to Ian Sharps and he said: “You’ve just cut through us at will,” Hill revealed. “We’re probably not getting that little bit of luck around the box. But our final ball isn’t good enough, and until it is we won’t get that luck.

“It’s ok saying we cut through other teams, but other teams are causing us problems as well.”

Chester had passed up three presentable opportunities to strike first, before Heneghan broke through with a goal that Hill admitted was soft, from an Eastleigh perspective.

“It was a poor free-kick to give away (when Dan Harding tripped Chester forward Jordan Chapell). I think they’ve got a block on (Jamie) Turley, as well. You can say it’s a foul, but that’s all part of the game nowadays. I’ve got no beef with that at all.”

Defender Turley was injured in the second-half of an end-to-end contest, forcing Hill into a hefty re-jig of his back-four – and adding to the Spitfires’ manager’s legion of walking wounded.

Hill was waiting to speak to the club’s sports therapist Andy Cook on Sunday, before assessing his resources for Tuesday night’s clash with Dover Athletic at the Silverlake Stadium.

One player that Hill is now able to call on again is Andy Drury, who returned to action with an impressive 35 minute cameo in the north-west after the former Luton Town man had missed three games due to the birth of his daughter.

“Dukes (Drury) has only trained for half-an-hour the other day,” Hill explained. “I couldn’t start him. I just felt it was needs must (to put Drury on at Chester). Yes, that was a positive, but we’re talking about today’s game and that wasn’t a positive.”

Hill doesn’t agree that his players are lacking confidence, but the Eastleigh boss acknowledges that a degree of pragmatism might be required for his side to rediscover their winning touch.

“How do you give somebody confidence?” Hill reflected. “They’re always encouraged in training to pass the ball, to move the ball.

"We’ve been accused of being a long-ball team, which I don’t think we have been. But the way things are at the moment we might have to be a long ball team.

“It’s ok to run around for the last 25 minutes and huff and puff, and feel like you’ve been a bit hard done by regarding one or two decisions. But that’s not right when you haven’t played well enough for the first hour.

“It’s about our performance. Our final ball today wasn’t good enough and we didn’t play well enough without the ball.”