THE last time Eastleigh encountered referee Ashvin Degnarain, manager Ian Baird blamed his “Jeremy Beadle” type performance for heavily contributing to a 3-0 league defeat at Chelmsford.

But aside from turning down a penalty appeal for a foul on Richard Gillespie, the Islington official did little to upset Baird at Woking on Saturday in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round.

When it came to the blame game, Baird was pointing the finger firmly at his own players for throwing away the chance to make the first round proper for a second year running.

Faced with a Woking side who have scored just seven goals in their opening 11 Blue Square Bet South games, the Spitfires looked to be onto a winner when Gillespie fired them ahead with less than two minutes gone at Kingfield.

But their early dominance was undone by some poor defending and the frightening pace of ex-Saint Graham Baker’s Woking who, ironically, have earned a trip to Baird’s old club Brighton & Hove Albion as reward for their thrilling 3-2 victory.

“We were like Kamikaze pilots and we’ve shot ourselves massively in the foot,” said a frustrated and angry Baird afterwards.

“Richard Gillespie’s had a stone wall penalty turned down, but I’m sick and tired of saying how unlucky we were.

“We’ve gifted Woking the result and I’m gutted.

“For the first 30 minutes we were cruising, but then we’ve been caught out trying to play nice tippy-tappy football and been punished for it.

“Yes, Woking had pace but we were more than well equipped to deal with that and we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves that we didn’t kill the game off.

“We were totally and utterly dominant, but poor finishing and a failure to do the simple things well has cost us.”