Eastleigh will have the massive incentive of going second in the Ryman Premier Division on Wednesday if they beat rock-bottom Kingstonian at the Sparshatts Stadium.

The Stoneham Lane club kept the pressure on the leaders with a slender 1-0 home win over Dover Athletic on Saturday, courtesy of a 36th-minute strike from tigerish midfielder Danny Smith, below.

Although Dover are level on points with Kingstonian, Eastleigh's director of football Mark Dennis reckons they're better than their position suggests.

"They're a good club with good support and they play football the right way. Their delivery from free-kicks and corners was the best I've seen and they have the potential to finish over halfway," he said.

"They had more possession than us, but we were more clinical and our back five - including keeper Wayne Shaw - were outstanding.

"Danny Smith was also superb in the middle of the park. He made some great runs from deep.

"Our front two of Paul Sales and Andy Forbes struggled a bit, but you'd expect that because they're feeling their way back from injury."

As well as Smith's goal, set up by fellow midfielder Martin Thomas, Eastleigh also hit the woodwork three times.

Exciting right-back Adam James smashed one against the post, Ryan Ashford had a 20-yard blast tipped onto the bar by the keeper and Tyronne Bowers clipped the upright late on.

SLAP-DASH Salisbury City yesterday missed the boat towards mid-table respectability when they suffered a dismal 4-2 defeat at lowly Wealdstone.

A hat-trick by Richard Jolly proved Whites' undoing.

Assistant manager Barry Blankley said: "It really was a case of Jekyll & Hyde after the 3-2 win at Tonbrige on Tuesday. Just when you think you've got over the barrier, it's back to square one again.

"We started lively enough, but yet more schoolboy errors cost us."

He added: "What really hurts is that Wealdstone wanted it more than we did. They're no great shakes, but what they did do was work really hard."

Jolly opened the scoring after six minutes with a near-post header from a corner and then burst through for a second five minutes later after Matt Holmes had lost the ball in midfield.

Adam Wallace, the best performer on an otherwise dismal day, reduced the deficit from Michael Cooper's long ball out of defence, but Jermaine Beckford made it 3-1 at half-time when he rounded keeper Kevin Sawyer to score.

Jolly completed his hat-trick on the hour and ten minutes later midfielder Craig Davis netted a consolation free kick.