MANAGER Kelvin Davis praised his players' reaction after Eastleigh climbed into third place in the National League with an entertaining 4-2 win over Rochdale.

Rochdale took the lead in the sixth minute when Kairo Mitchell capitalised on a poor pass to net his seventh of the season but Paul McCallum headed in the equaliser 16 minutes later.

McCallum then set up Ludwig Francillette for a 35th-minute header and Chris Maguire made it 3-1 on the hour mark.

Rochdale pulled one back 10 minutes later through Devante Rodney but Eastleigh added a fourth in the 77th minute when McCallum netted again from the penalty spot for his seventh of the campaign.

The result saw the Spitfires end their two-game losing streak following defeats to Southend United and Halifax Town.

Speaking to Eastleigh's media team, Davis said: "We've had a really good week in training. It's nice to have the prep time to get organised.

"The focus from the lads today was fantastic, I told the players that in the dressing room. I'm really proud of the work they put in to enable us to deliver that level of performance.

"We had a couple of guys missing today through injury which makes it more of an achievement to have that level of performance when you are down numbers.

"The type of goal we conceded is that we are working on things and trying to play out of the back. That needs time. The message to Joe was to play his game.

"He's a good goalkeeper. It was a team error that we ended up conceding from that position. Now it's about making sure going 1-0 down doesn't mean we fall off a cliff.

"We work on our set pieces and we felt there was an opportunity for us. A goal has been coming for Ludi and I'm glad we had some success with that.

"There were a couple of top performances from our guys today so I am really pleased. We scored different types of goals, which I am really pleased about."

The Spitfires are next in action against twelfth-place Woking on Tuesday evening as they look to continue their home momentum.