SHOT-SHY Eastleigh need a clinical finisher – and fast – if they are to get out of the Vanarama National League.

That message came through loud and clear from manager Ronnie Moore after his expensively assembled Spitfires side had been humbled 3-0 at home by Chester yesterday – their worst home result of the season.

While the Spitfires laboured through their now familiar routine of creating chances galore and squandering them, Chester capitalised on virtually every opening that came their way.

They scored from their first meaningful attack after 20 minutes when, following slack defending by Joe Partington and Luke Coulson on the Spitfires’ right, Johnny Hunt’s cross was buried by Kane Richards.

And while Eastleigh enjoyed plenty of possession, their toothless attack coupled with some untidy moments in defence – despite the addition of £60,000 man Bondz N’Gala from Barnet – made this an accident waiting to happen.

Midway through the second half Chester made them pay when skipper Partington was panicked into fouling Richards at the expense of a penalty.

And though Wycombe loan keeper Scott Brown did his job, repelling Tom Shaw’s spot kick, Eastleigh somehow lost the ball amid a goalmouth scramble, allowing Elliott Durrell to bundle home.

Moore’s misery was complete in stoppage time when the Spitfires were caught out by a quickly-taken free-kick and sub Jordan Chappell held his nerve to beat Brown one-on-one.

After watching his team booed off by sections of a disgruntled 1,923 crowd, Moore said: “We’ve shot ourselves in the foot.

“For me that team (Chester) is there to be beaten. You’re not telling me they’re 3-0 better than we are, but we’ve killed ourselves today.

“When you go 1-0 down you can’t go gung-ho, you’ve got to keep your shape. But we’ve had the two full-backs bombing on and the centre-backs going two for two and any counter-attack is going to cause you problems.

“The first goal should never happen. Parts and Couls (were there), one of them goes to sleep and the lad goes clean through. But we’ve had loads of opportunities like that to get the ball in the box and we’ve hit the first man how many times?

“We’ve got strikers trying to walk the ball in instead of taking a snap-shot when it’s there. We’ve got to be more ruthless.”

Despite having five frontmen at his disposal, Moore is not convinced by any of them.

“We’ve had 20-odd crosses into Chester’s box and never really tested their keeper," he said.

“They’d not been anywhere near our goal until they scored their first.

“Before they score, I was thinking this could three or four here – not for them, for us.

“They were sitting so deep they never looked like scoring.

“If we’d scored first, we’d have won by five, but we make it so hard for ourselves.

“For me, we need a clinical finisher and if we don’t get one of those sharpish, then it’s going to be tough.

“We’ve got five strikers but nobody stands out as the automatic.

“(Mikael) Mandron’s scored five in six, but he hardly had a shot today. If I’m a striker, I want to be having six, seven or eight shots a game.

“We’ve been looking for months (for a goal scorer) but it’s very hard trying to get one because everybody wants the scorers. We have to keep looking, keep asking and keep knocking on doors.”

Eighth-placed Eastleigh – now seven points off the play-off zone – face a different type of challenge on Maidstone United’s artificial pitch on Tuesday (7.45pm).

Eastleigh: Scott Brown, Joe Partington, Michael Green, Jason Taylor, Bondz N’Gala, Reda Johnson, Luke Coulson, Andy Drury, Mikael Mandron, Scott Wilson (Jamie Cureton, 58), Ross Stearn (Alefe Santos, 69). Subs (not used) Connor Essam, James Constable, Jai Reason.

Referee: Craig Hicks.

Attendance: 1,923.