Chris Todd declared himself to be delighted after watching his Eastleigh side overcome Southport thanks to Andy Drury’s 84th minute strike.

Following defeat at the Silverlake Stadium against Grimsby seven days ago the Spitfires’ patchy form on their own turf has come under some scrutiny.

And for the majority of Saturday’s encounter it seemed that the steely visitors would keep Todd’s side at bay, until Josh Payne teed up Drury to secure the three points.

“I don’t want to give too much away, but we have been working on something this week,” said Todd.

“It’s come off today and I’m delighted.

“Our home form has to be better. Today we have shown that whoever comes to play us here is going to find it difficult.”

As the clock ticked down on his team’s efforts to force a breakthrough against the Sandgrounders Todd’s belief in his troops never wavered.

He said: “I am always confident. I was actually thinking at the time: ‘We are going to get one in a minute’.

“I have just said to the lads that there will be games like that when we are on top, but not scoring, and we just have to be careful. You can just switch off, which we did a little bit a couple of times.

“That will happen, because you can’t be on song every second of the match. But it’s a case of managing the game in the right way and we’ve done that today.”

Todd admitted to harbouring some concerns about the Silverlake playing surface, which was cutting up from the first whistle of this encounter.

Nevertherless, it is his team’s blockbuster FA Cup tie at Stourbridge next week that is now occupying the Eastleigh manager’s mind.

“We will be right for that game,” Todd promised.

“We’re mentally prepared for it and, in my opinion, if we perform like we can we will win.”