Aldershot Town’s unbeaten home run came to a dramatic end at the hands of Eastleigh.

The visiting Spitfires beat the Shots 5-3 in an enthralling National League encounter to end a run which hadn’t seen the hosts lose at the EBB Stadium since early September.

Following a dramatic win against Stockport in the FA Cup, Shots manager Tommy Widdrington made a couple of changes.

Kwame Thomas and club captain Stuart O’Keefe came in for Jack Barham and Tommy Willard, who both dropped to the bench.

Lorent Tolaj had the Shots’ first opening of the afternoon, holding off George Langston well before turning and hitting a fierce effort straight at Joe McDonnell from range.

Paul McCallum opened the scoring for the visiting Spitfires on 20 minutes. A flick through the Shots defence from Scott Quigley found the former Shots man, and from close range he fired past Jordi van Stappershoef to give Eastleigh a 1-0 lead.

O’Keefe nearly had the Shots level after 27 minutes.

A ball was sent into the box by Cian Harries, and after some bouncing around between Thomas and Tolaj the ball fell to the returning skipper, who sliced a half-volley wide into the Eastleigh fans behind McDonnell’s goal.

A poor start would get even worse in the 35th minute for Aldershot, as they fell two behind before half-time.

A cross into the box by McCallum was cleared by Van Stappershoef, but only as far as Bailey Clements – who took the ball down and fired high and beyond Van Stappershoef in the home net.

Josh Stokes had the best chance to put the Shots back in touching distance before the break, connecting well with a cross from Thomas and sending an effort spinning just wide of McDonnell’s goal.

Aldershot had lost just once at home all season, but it looked as though it would be Eastleigh who would maintain their record of not losing at the EBB Stadium since 2020 as they added a third.

Chris Maguire beat the offside trap and raced through the Shots defence, beating three defenders and Van Stappershoef to squeeze his shot into the back of the net on the stroke of half-time.

O’Keefe’s return to action was cut short at half-time, as Willard came on in place of the midfielder. Harries took the armband for the second half.

Things went from bad to worse for the Shots in the 51st minute. Willard was tackled by Maguire just outside the Shots area, and Maguire squared to McCallum who fired Eastleigh into a 4-0 lead.

Widdrington put all his cards on the table after the fourth goal, sending Barham and Olly Scott on to the field in place of Ryan Glover and Tyler Frost as he tried to rescue something from the game.

The Shots defence were all over the place again on the hour mark, and Quigley raced through one-on-one with Van Stappershoef and picked his spot to put Eastleigh 5-0 up.

Barham pulled a goal back for the Shots in the 65th minute. Ollie Harfield picked the ball up and kept running before eventually sending the ball to the back post where a hopeful Barham arrived to put the ball into the back of an empty net.

Aldershot had a second goal when Stokes closed the gap to three with just over 15 minutes left to go. Stokes picked the ball up from range, drove towards the Eastleigh box and had a pop from range which ended up creeping under McDonnell to make it 5-2.

Eastleigh were then reduced to ten men in the 82nd minute. After a number of pushes and shoves referee Wayne Cartmel showed Eastleigh captain Enzio Boldewijn a red card.

The scoreline became a little more respectable in the 96th minute when, following a lot of pressure on the Eastleigh goal, Stokes added a second to his tally for the day.

Stokes took the ball down and turned in the Eastleigh box, and after a handful of fine saves he finally beat McDonnell as he fired low and beyond the Eastleigh stopper.

Despite threatening a late comeback the Shots were beaten by Eastleigh. The character shown by Widdrington’s side to not give up at 5-0 was commendable, but in a season which has seen the Shots overcome so many hurdles, a 5-0 deficit proved just too much for them to overcome.

Laurence Ryan