Eastleigh paid the penalty for complacency and under-estimating their opponents when National League strugglers Maidstone United sent them crashing out of the FA Trophy.

With Maidstone rock bottom of the table and already beaten 5-2 at the Silverlake Stadium earlier this season, Eastleigh expected to win – but it all went terribly wrong, with the Spitfires having skipper Aaron Martin sent off and playing the last hour with ten men, writes Mike Vimpany.

Under the caretaker management of former Wolverhampton Wanderers centre-half George Elokobi, Maidstone looked anything but a bottom-of-the-table outfield and rocked a pedestrian Eastleigh with two goals in 11 minutes before going on to win 4-0. Their reward is a quarter-final home tie against Barnet.

A frustrated Eastleigh manager Lee Bradbury lamented: "We'd beaten Southend United and Woking in the past few games, but we dropped our guard and our standards against Maidstone, who thoroughly deserved to win.

"We were complacent. It seemed half our side though they only had to turn up to win."

That was evident from the outset with Eastleigh looking off the pace and Stones almost scoring in the fifth minute when Regan Booty hit the base of the post.

Moments later Eastleigh paid the penalty for their slackness with the pacey Jack Barham working hard to play the ball to Sha’mar Lawson on the edge of the box. His first-time strike flew past Joe McDonnell.

Eastleigh, unbalanced by defensive absentees, ought to have equalized when Danny Whitehall released Alfie Lloyd, but the QPR loanee wasted the chance as goalkeeper Dan Barden saved with his outstretched legs.

It proved a critical moment for Eastleigh as Maidstone doubled their lead on 11 minutes from a short corner - Deacon and Barham combining to set up Booty.  

Eastleigh's woes were compounded in the 31st minute when skipper and centre half Aaron Martin was sent off. He could have few complaints after being booked twice in five minutes.

Spitfires manager Lee Bradbury sacrificed midfielder Jake Hesketh to shore up his defence with George Langston coming off the bench.

The tie was effectively all over seven minutes after the break with Maidstone scoring a third from another set piece.

It was another short corner. Deacon this time exchanging passes with Booty before cutting inside virtually unchallenged and lashing into the far bottom corner.

As the Eastleigh fans headed for the exits, so the travelling Stones chanted "Wembley" - and who could blame them after Deacon fed Binnom-Williams to bend the ball beautifully into the top corner for his second goal in as many weeks.

Eastleigh, who entertain Maidenhead United on Saturday (3pm), had a number of chances late on, but the outcome was a foregone conclusion by then.