Click here to listen to Glenn's interview after the victory.

City’s early siege on the Eastleigh goal - going three strikes to the good by the 19th minute - proved sufficient to record a comfortable victory over the Hampshire club in the Blue Square Bet South, Manager Glenn Pennyfather reacting: “I wasn’t predicting that result!”

 

Greg Morgan, Adam Tann and Aiden Palmer all got on the score sheet, the latter straight from a corner, to put the Clarets in complete control and they had further opportunities to add to their tally. Though the three points strengthened the team’s position towards the top of the table and, although Glenn wasn’t forecasting a three-goal margin, he was always confident his side would come out on top.

 

“From the performances we’ve been putting in, I expected that we’d win tonight,” he explained. “In saying that, Eastleigh came off the back of a great victory themselves on Saturday - 3-0 against Welling - and there’s not many sides who do that to Welling. It was always a worry but we had them watched, and the lads who are scouting for me are doing a fantastic job so we knew what we were going to get tonight.”

 

The only change to the side which claimed a late win at Salisbury City at the weekend was the addition of winger Morgan in place of Joe Benjamin - and he was thrust straight into the action. In just the 4th minute Cliff Akurang received a long ball over the top and rounded goalkeeper Gareth Barfoot, though the angle presented to him was too slight for a first-time shot and the chance dissolved.

 

Eastleigh responded when Jamie Slabber headed wide from a corner but Morgan announced his arrival in fortunate circumstances on 8 minutes. Max Cornhill sent a sublime cross-field side volley into Morgan’s path on the left and he jinked inside to the corner of the penalty box. His delivery into the goalmouth left Barfoot unsighted and the lack of a touch deceived him as the ball dropped to the left of him and into net.

 

He swiped at a further chance shortly afterwards but City added to their advantage quickly, a Palmer corner finding the unmarked Tann at the far post who jumped highest to power a header beyond Barfoot for the second. Flag kicks seemed to be causing the Spitfires all manner of problems and, when Sam Corcoran’s free kick proved too hot for Barfoot to handle, it began a flurry which resulted in the Clarets’ third.

 

Tann nearly headed home again from one, but there was no need for an intervention when the lethal Palmer sent an in-swinging centre underneath the bar in the 19th minute, with Cornhill waiting to pounce if required. Chelmsford had completely bossed the first quarter, and they certainly had the goals to show for it.

 

Eastleigh offered a 25th-minute threat as the ball broke to Sam Wilson a few yards out adjacent to the left-hand upright though he was stood with his head in his hands as he spooned over the bar. Meanwhile, the half-hour saw Palmer’s latest dead ball at the other end bring a strong header from Akurang, which flew just wide.

 

The visitors’ skipper Tom Jordan and City’s Kezie Ibe traded efforts towards the end of the half while Akurang was presented with a 43rd-minute opening. A pass from deep was only headed into the air by a back-tracking Eastleigh defender but Akurang carved off-target on the volley with only Barfoot to beat.

 

That almost brought down the curtain on the match as a spectacle as the latter period quietened down, Glenn recalling: “The second half was always going to be different. They will have got a talking to at half time and they came out and a footballer’s pride kicks in. We had to deal with that and keep our discipline and, as fantastic as we were in the first half, I thought we were really professional in the second.”

 

There was an early, and seemingly justified, penalty appeal within minutes of the restart when Ibe appeared to be sent to ground just inside the area but Referee Lee Betts was swift to wave away any calls for a spot kick. A few more minutes then passed before Pennyfather introduced new striker Michael Bakare from the bench, and it wasn’t long before he made his first contribution.

 

On 57 minutes, Ricky Modeste did superbly to dribble round two defenders and work himself a chance to cut back from the right wing into Bakare’s path but the ex-Bishop’s Stortford marksman sliced over. Just before the hour, Stuart Searle was called into action for the first time, with Akurang emerging out of a crowd of bodies to inadvertently head at his own goal, but the City stopper turned it onto the crossbar.

 

Eastleigh considered themselves unfortunate not to have benefitted from a couple of suspected handballs in the City defensive third though they contributed little else to worry a Chelmsford defence which stood solid. There was another late chance for Warren Whitely to arrow over from the edge of the box on 80 minutes but the hosts’ earlier rampage was sufficient for the three points.

“I was as pleased with the clean sheet as I was with the goals,” Glenn said. “Defensively we were sound again, as we were on Saturday. Stuart’s only made one save tonight where he’s tipped the ball onto the bar from Cliff’s header towards his own goal! The tempo and desire we showed, then the ability with the ball and movement, was fantastic. We got our rewards with three goals, and it could have been a lot more.”

 

City:

 

1 Stuart Searle

2 Justin Miller

3 Aiden Palmer

4 Adam Tann (C)

5 Kenny Clark

6 Greg Morgan

7 Ricky Modeste

8 Sam Corcoran

9 Kezie Ibe

10 Max Cornhill

11 Cliff Akurang

 

12 Michael Bakare (On for Morgan, 52)

14 Jermaine Brown

15 Mark Haines

16 Ben Nunn

17 Warren Whitely (On for Ibe, 70)

 

Eastleigh: Gareth Barfoot, Danny Smith, Michael Green, Jamie Brown, Tom Jordan (C), Ross Bottomley, Ian Herring (Billy Tsovolos, 77), Richard Gillespie, Jamie Slabber, Sam Wilson (Jordace Holder-Spooner, 53), Graeme Montgomery (Andrew White, 64). Unused Substitutes: Matt Willsher, Ben Wilson.

 

Bookings: City: Searle (90+2, dissent). Eastleigh: Herring (26, foul), Bottomley (90+2, foul).

 

Referee: Lee Betts (Norwich).

 

Assistant Referees: Darren Stobbart (Bury St Edmunds) and Alan Dale (Ipswich).

 

Attendance: 937.

 

City Man of the Match: Max Cornhill.