EASTLEIGH did all the right homework on the Students of Team Bath.

But Ian Baird’s men miserably failed this latest examination of their Blue Square South promotion credentials with a 3-1 home reverse on Saturday.

After a fine run of just one defeat in Eastleigh’s previous nine league outings, the 544 Silverlake Stadium crowd arrived with great expectations of a team who welcomed in Barnet loan signing Ashley Carew for his debut.

But what they got was a dreadful first-half performance labelled by Baird as: “The worst we’ve played since the 5-0 defeat at St Albans in August.”

Quite what went wrong with the stuttering Spitfires, who trailed 2-0 at the interval, remains a mystery to Baird.

“If I knew the answer, I’d be a magician,” he said. “I suppose one theory is that we haven’t played much recently and we were unable to get on our pitch to train on Thursday.

“We were certainly very lethargic – and it wasn’t just one or two players who were off their game, the whole eleven were very poor.

“You could also say that it takes time for the new loan players (Ashley Carew and Jonny Dixon) to settle in, but I don’t think that’s an excuse.

The players were given all the info they needed on Team Bath.

“They’re second-chance footballers, the majority of them having been with Football League clubs, who go to university to get a degree while being paid to play football at the same time.

“Both teams were poor in the first half, but the difference was that they had two chances and scored two goals.”

Dixon, on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion, and skipper Andy Harris went the closest to scoring for Eastleigh before Ben Thomson stole in completely unmarked at the far post to fire Team Bath into a 42nd-minute lead.

It got worse for the Spitfires in stoppage time with Thomson this time turning provider for Takumi Ake to double the Students’ lead.

Shaun Benison should have had a third for Bath at the start of the second half, but planted an easy header wide.

The gloom then deepened for Eastleigh when skipper Harris limped off with an ankle injury to be replaced by Warren Goodhind.

Baird reverted to three at the back with the recalled Luke Byles switching to a more advanced position as Eastleigh tried to get a foothold in the game.

But they were caught again on 72 minutes when Thomson’s trickery set up Matt Cooper to make it 3-0.

The arrival of former Winchester City striker Brett Williams perked Eastleigh up late on and the youngster twice laid on good balls for Dixon and Matt Groves.

But the game was well beyond the sorry Spitfires by the time Dixon bagged his first goal for the club in the 89th minute after Groves had helped the ball on.

Eastleigh almost scored again in stoppage time but Tony Taggart’s venomous free-kick was brilliantly tipped onto the bar by keeper Jake Meredith.

Baird’s men will need to buck their ideas up when the other Bath side, City, come calling at the Silverlake tomorrow night (7.45pm). The Romans are seventh in the BS South, five points behind fourth-placed Eastleigh with two games in hand.

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