RICHARD Hill has brought back two familiar faces to try and arrest Eastleigh's slide down the Vanarama National League table.

Defender Paul Reid and striker Matt Tubbs are back at the Silverlake for the rest of the season, keen to help pull the Spitfires out of an alarming nosedive.

They both go into the squad for this afternoon's home game against Barrow (Saturday, 3pm) with Eastleigh still searching for their first win of 2017 and their first home success since October.

Former Spitfires skipper Reid returns to the Silverlake from Whitehawk where he had worked with Hill earlier this season and briefly succeeded him as joint manager before reverting back to just a playing role.

Director of football/caretaker boss Hill expalined: "Reidy contacted me, just talking about the current state at the club, and said if there was anything he could do to help he would be more than pleased to do so.

"Having been looking in the market for players, I had no hesitation in offering him a contract until the end of the season as I know he cares about this football club and will do whatever he can to change our current run of form."

Former Salisbury striker Tubbs did not have the best of times at Eastleigh on loan from Portsmouth in the second half of last season, scoring just twice.

But he too contacted the club, via striker Craig McAllister, wanting to help out.

Following his release from Portsmouth, Tubbs joined Forest Green Rovers last summer and, after a loan spell at Woking, signed for Paul Doswell's Sutton United where, until recently, he was a clubmate of McAllister's.

"I appreciate Matt Tubbs was not the most popular player with supporters when he was here last season," said Hill.

"But even though I was not connected with the club, I heard supposed figures and it was evident that Tubbs was being judged, arriving at the club with a big weight on his shoulders and, by his own admission, he did not fulfill expectations."