Ben Strevens is hoping that Eastleigh will sign him some reinforcements as his injury crisis worsens.

The Spitfires are losing players to injury at an alarming rate and have yet another casualty for treatment room in Jack McKnight.

Strevens’ 50th game in charge of Eastleigh ended in a disappointing 3-1 away defeat to Dover with former Spitfires boss Andy Hessenthaler taking the three points.

Another ex-Eastleigh man, Oscar Gobern, the former Saints player, opened the scoring. Inih Effiong netted the other two for Dover, the second from the penalty spot, with Tyrone Barnett briefly giving Eastleigh hope.

Strevens said: “I said to them second half I was as proud of them as I have been at any moment since I’ve been manager.

“They battled for each other and tried as hard as they could.

“Dover were desperate to win and they have injuries as well but we have a back five out now and that’s the honest truth of what it is.

“I’m going to need a little bit of help from the club because I’m asking so much of the boys and we’ve got to do something it and we have to get people in to help these boys.

“Jack McKnight hasn’t even been able to train. He trained Monday for the first time and he ended up pulling his hamstring and that’s my fault.

“He wasn’t fit enough to play and I played him and that’s my fault and I feel terrible about that because he’s going to be out for three-four weeks and he’s just been out for four weeks but it was the circumstance of what we had to do but I feel terrible about it.”

He added: “It was tough tonight and it has been tough for the last four or five weeks.

“It’s just been boys getting injured and at half time I said to them the way they have been standing up to adversity the last few weeks it was a big test for them going out in that second half.

“I said to them results I want to win every game but the way they worked with every player out of position and not just one out of position they gave it a right good go second half to be fair.

“We got a goal back and we were on top albeit for some poor refereeing decisions and I don’t want to go any worse than that but he’s a poor referee that didn’t help us. I’m not blaming him as there were a lot of other factors but he’s terrible.”