EASTLEIGH are now the seventh best supported club in non league football after Tuesday’s bumper crowd against Maidstone.

A huge 4,114 took advantage of free admission for all to pack into the Silverlake Stadium for a 3-0 win that lifted the Spitfires into the National League play-off zone.

It was the ninth highest crowd in the fifth tier in 2016/17, and was more than Tranmere Rovers - a Championship club as recently as the early noughties - attracted to Prenton Park the same night.

In fact, the other top 19 crowds in the National League this term all belong to former Football League trio Tranmere, Wrexham and Lincoln.

Tuesday’s large crowd has boosted the Spitfires’ average league attendance this term to 2,323 - a 15.29 per cent increase on last term’s 2,015.

Eastleigh, who should get another big crowd today for the visit of fellow high fliers Dagenham, are the fourth best supported club in the fifth tier - behind only Tranmere (4,675 average), Wrexham (4,299) and Lincoln (3,444).

Three lower division clubs are also above them in the crowds table.

Hereford, despite playing three divisions lower in the Southern League Division 1 (South & West) at the same level as AFC Totton and Winchester City, are averaging 2,647.

Conference North pair Stockport County (2,645) and FC United of Manchester (2,499) are also averaging more than Eastleigh.

Tuesday’s crowd was the second biggest to watch Eastleigh in a league game at the Silverlake.

The largest remains the 4,126 who attended the 4-0 thrashing of Macclesfield in February 2015 - a game which saw the official opening of a new grandstand behind the goal.

The previous second best league crowd had been the 3,269 who had seen the 1-0 loss to Tranmere in the last home game of 2015/16.

Eastleigh’s crowd on Tuesday was bigger than all 31 attendances in the much maligned Checkatrade Trophy that night.

Remarkably, it was around twice the combined crowd that saw Saints under-23 and Pompey the same evening.

Colchester could only manage 791 for Saints’ visit - one of 11 threefigure gates on the night - while Pompey’s 1,335 for Reading under-23s was, unsurprisingly, a post-war low at Fratton Park.

Eastleigh had attracted a crowd of 2,853 to the Silverlake for their previous home league game against Sutton.

On that occasion, the club admitted all students for free.

The Spitfires’ current average is more than three League 2 clubs this season - Morecambe (2,057), Accrington Stanley (1,861) and Barnet (1,771)