Eastleigh's co-assistant manager Mark Dennis was "in shock" after yesterday's 4-1 Conference South defeat at Bishop's Stortford.

On the face of it the Spitfires had taken a drubbing, but the scoreline, according to ex-Saint Dennis, bore no resemblance to what actually happened.

"It was freakish, unbelievable," he said. "We had enough chances today to have won two games, let alone one. We completely outplayed them, but everything they hit went in.

"People will pick up the paper in the morning and say we got battered, but that's not the case.

"Bishop's Stortford are not even a good side. They're the worst we've played lately, apart from Sutton."

Eastleigh got off to the worst possible start, falling behind to a Steve Morison goal in the first minute.

But, from that point, they were well in the game, with Chris Collins hitting the post with a header before Richard Hodgson volleyed in a 56th-minute equaliser from Andy Forbes's headed assist.

"We should have been 2-1 or 3-1 up," Dennis insisted. "Dave Town's missed one from a yard, Steve Forbes has missed two chances and Hodgy could have had another."

Instead it was the Bishops who re-took the lead through a Dave Rainford penalty awarded against David Hughes on 70 minutes. And, much to the visitors' shock, it was followed by two more late goals from Louie Evans and Morison, sentencing Eastleigh to their first defeat in six league games.

Dennis felt the penalty was a nonsense, but said: "The referee had a shocker. It said it all that he ran straight off the pitch without shaking people's hands."

l HAVANT & Waterlooville breathed fresh life into their play-off push with an excellent 2-0 victory at third-placed Lewes.

Such was manager Ian Baird's exasperation with Saturday's 2-1 home defeat by Thurrock that he opted against going into the dressing room and left the players to their own devices.

"We got down there quite early and had a 1.30 team talk, but then I left the players to it," ex-Saint Baird explained. "There'd been some harsh words spoken after Saturday's game and I just felt I'd done as much as I could organising them, getting the opposition watched and giving them all the information. I said it was up to them now and I think the senior players like Fitzroy Simpson, Tom Jordan and Neil Sharp took it on. To be fair, they were better than me!

"Lewes made it difficult for us in the second half and we were under the cosh a bit, but we were far and away the better team in the first half."

Top scorer Rocky Baptiste opened the scoring from the penalty spot on ten minutes after Carl Wilson-Denis had been brought down and Richard Pacquette settled it eight minutes from time.

The result keeps Havant in the fourth and final play-off berth.

Of the chasing pack, only Histon won - a 64th-minute Danny Bloomfield goal sinking Basingstoke Town 1-0 at the Camrose Ground.