EASTLEIGH manager Lee Bradbury has admitted that York City 'had a real go' at the Spitfires defence in Tuesday night's match.

A stunning free-kick from Michael Kelly was the only difference between the two sides, with Eastleigh registering just two shots throughout the entire match.

But in a fairly even contest, York were unable to take their chances and reaped the rewards, leaving the South Coast with zero points.

Bradbury praised City however, after securing three points against the Minstermen.

"Important [win], they had six up top in the last ten minutes. The goalkeeper has come up and they've made us defend, so fair play to them they had a real go." Admitted Bradbury.

"It was a bit scrappy in the end but I fancied us to break on the counter-attack and kill the game off, but one didn't quite fall.

"It was a little bit of a scrappy game. Both teams looked tired I felt tonight, they lacked a bit of composure on the ball and quality, it was 100 miles-per-hour at times.

"At this stage keeping a clean sheet has given us a massive chance to win the game.

"A moment of quality is what I said to the boys at half-time would decide the game and Michael Kelly with his free-kick was that.

"It's very pleasing because everyone's fighting for places at this stage.

"I think it's important because now when we're playing the teams in the bottom half of the table the lads have given themselves the challenge of teams upping their game.

"It was written in the stars for him to score tonight and fair play to him, it was a great free-kick."

Eastleigh have now defeated York, Dorking Wanderers, Maidenhead United and Maidstone United in recent weeks, and rarely slip up to a side towards the wrong end of the Vanarama National League table.

"They come here time-wasting and wanting to take a point because we are one of the in-form teams, and that's a testament to the boys.

"They've done brilliantly and they took everything on board and worked hard to keep clean sheets and get wins and to find a way to win. We did that tonight, and I think that's fantastic.

"It can always be tough with the two centre-halves gone again and we kept a clean sheet, that's massive.

"I wanted to change formation to give us a bit more of a foothold in the game.

"But we'd already made two subs so it was hard to do so and I didn't want to make the third sub too early because if we had gotten and injury and would've had to play with ten men for the last however long the injury was.

"I just felt we needed to be a little bit calmer in possession and on the ball and to not be in too much of a rush to score a goal.

"Because we had the pace of Carter and the full-backs who started the game, we sort of want to hurt the opposition straight away but the decision-making of doing that was not great in the first half.

"There were too many turnovers of possession."