EASTLEIGH 0 MACCLESFIELD TOWN 1.

THREE home games in eight days and not one National League point banked.

Eastleigh’s Silverlake Stadium misery continued tonight as they paid the price for an appalling start in a 1-0 home defeat by Macclesfield Town.

With a free entry crowd of 2,345 watching on, the slip-sliding Spitfires desperately wanted to give fans something to cheer about after back-to-back woe against Braintree and Tranmere.

But it was an all too familiar story as a seventh-minute Rhys Browne goal piled on the misery, leaving the sorry Spitfires still searching for their first win of 2017.

The Silkmen were all over Eastleigh like a rash from the off and the only surprise after ten torrid minutes for Eastleigh was that they were only 1-0 down.

Young full-back Chinua Cole – one of four players restored to the starting line-up – was too easily beaten by Browne as the ball came in from Macclesfield’s left and, just seven minutes into his return after three months of elbow problems, Eastleigh keeper Ryan Clarke’s hopes of a clean sheet had already evaporated.

So too had the Spitfires’ brittle confidence and only a goalline clearance from Ayo Obileye and Clarke’s last-ditch intervention at the feet of Mitch Hancox spared them further early damage as they were pulled from pillar to post by the visitors.

At that point it was hard to see where an Eastleigh chance was coming from as reunited frontline duo James Constable and Craig McAllister were deprived of service.

But when Obileye’s header forced Macc keeper Scott Flinders into his first save on the half-hour, it heralded a promising spell of pressure from the Spitfires that so nearly brought them back on terms.

On 33 minutes Tyler Garratt’s left-wing delivery ran all the way across the area to Ross Stearn whose goal-bound blast cannoned off Flinders’ legs.

Two minutes later Stearn’s cross was dropped into the path of McAllister but the ref had blown for a foul on the keeper.

Within ten minutes of the second half Eastleigh had replaced Constable and McAllister with the fresh legs of Scott Wilson and Mekhi Leacock-McLeod. Instantly their pace troubled the Silkmen and, after Flinders had tipped over Obileye’s header from a corner, the big Eastleigh defender was denied by the woodwork as he rose to meet Garratt’s delightful ball in.

But a second Macclesfield goal looked equally likely with Clarke denying Hancox before Luke Summerfield and Kingsley James sent efforts wide and Jennings fired over in stoppage time.

Bemused manager Martin Allen said: “We’ve been well short tonight, it was nowhere near good enough.

“We didn’t win enough headers, didn’t win enough tackles and didn’t have enough people competing.

“I love the atmosphere here when the crowd get behind the players, but the players are not doing anything to lift them.”

And hinting that there will be a major overhaul of the squad in the summer, he added: “I’ve had players knocking on my door asking for contracts – they ain’t anywhere near it.”

Eastleigh: Ryan Clarke, Hakeem Odoffin, Chinua Cole, Sam Togwell (Ben Close, 65), Ayo Obileye, Adam Dugdale, Tyler Garratt, Ben Strevens, James Constable (Scott Wilson, 46), Craig McAllister (Mekhi Leacock-McLeod, 55), Ross Stearn. Subs (not used): Gavin Hoyte, Sam Muggleton.