RONNIE MOORE
We speak to the Eastleigh boss about life with the Spitfires as they continue their steady march
RONNIE MOORE may still be unbeaten since taking charge of Eastleigh but last night he told his players: We’re going back to the drawing board.
The Spitfires manager replaced Chris Todd back in August, and yesterday’s 3-3 draw with Woking made it eight National League matches without defeat.
But if you thought Moore would be happy with no loses against his name, you would be badly mistaken.
His defence got a tongue-lashing after their trip to Surrey, which saw them throw away a 3-1 half-time lead and nearly leave with nothing.
And the former Rotherham and Hartlepool United manager said his players can’t afford to let the club down on Tuesday night – Eastleigh host Maidstone and will be showcasing themselves to a huge crowd with chairman Stewart Donald deciding to throw open the gates and allow all fans in for nothing.
Focus
Moore, warning his players that standards can’t slip like they did on Saturday again, said: “We were really getting to where we needed to be but today changed that really – we just weren’t good enough in our own box and I need to figure out why. “You shouldn’t have to score four goals to win a game. We were defending very well previous to this, we were almost at a stage where we didn’t need to focus on it too much at training in fact, but I never expected that.
“It’s very much back to the drawing board now. We’ll look closely at what went wrong and put it right, we have to. We were a shambles at times and I don’t know why. Some of the goals we let in, the second goal in particular when we have let the ball bounce four times, I just can’t explain.”
October is a big month for Eastleigh, who go to promotion-chasers Barrow and Dagenham and host Lincoln City in between.
Moore says his side need to get back to winning way when they host Maidstone in midweek in front of what is likely to be the club’s biggest home crowd of the season.
He said: “Tuesday is now a big game for us, we need to put the Woking match to bed and the only way we can do that is by claiming three points in front of our fans.”