Eastleigh boss Paul Doswell has a small confession to make ahead of a tomorrow's "game of the season" against Braintree Town

His 'informed' decision to switch striker Craig McAllister to wide right midfield in last Saturday's 3-0 defeat of Chelmsford City was based on pure guesswork.

In Monday's Daily Echo, coach Nicky Banger applauded Doswell for his shrewd tactics, happily swallowing the boss's story that McAllister had played out wide before.

But Doswell laughed: "I lied. Craig never has done. I just said it to keep Nicky happy.

"Looking at Craig's game, I noticed most of his runs were through the channels and it didn't take a genius to work out he could play wide.

"Although Craig hadn't been at his best up front, he'd been tracking back a lot and working really hard which is what a midfield player needs to do.

"I also knew that he'd played in the hole behind the front two at Basingstoke, which isn't that different to what I asked him to do last week. He's an intelligent footballer and it didn't take more than two minutes to explain what I wanted from him.

"I'm not saying we're converting him to a wide midfielder, but if he carries on doing what he did the other day, he'll be a handful. He was a revelation for us, the missing link."

Despite McAllister's man-of-the-match performance, Doswell confirmed the 24-year-old Stevenage Borough loan marksman will NOT be playing for Eastleigh next season.

Quite simply, the Sparshatts Stadium club cannot afford him.

"It's fair to say Craig won't be coming back to us," Doswell clarifed. " I'd like to have him here, but we couldn't come close to paying his wages and also Graham Westley (Stevenage manager) would need a decent fee should he decide to sell him.

"Either Craig will go back to Stevenage and fight for a place or I'd imagine he'd join another Conference club closer to home."

Doswell will stick with an unchanged side tomorrow to face promotion rivals Braintree.

Victory, he believes, will cement third place in the league, guaranteeing them home advantage in the play-offs.

Having seen fourth-placed Braintree held 0-0 at Staines on Tuesday, he reported: "They're big and strong through the middle and nippy out wide, but they're not the finished article. They've only lost five all season but they've drawn 16, so I don't think they're going to rip us apart."

With Saints playing away tomorrow, Doswell is recommending fans come out in support of his Eastleigh entertainers, who have strung together seven wins and three draws on their ten-game unbeaten run, scoring 21 goals and conceding just four.