Cox: 'Eastleigh was one too many for us'

Sam Cox felt the punishing run of games took a toll on his side on Tuesday night but feels they have more than enough to drag themselves over the line on Saturday.

The 1-0 defeat over Eastleigh still leaves the Stones' fate very much in their own hands heading to Oldham Athletic for the final game of an exhausting National League season.

That fixture will be the team's 15th in 49 days and interim manager Cox, understandably, feels his part-time team, who have barely had time for a training session let alone a recovery session, are running on empty.

"I'm really gutted," he said. "I thought we were really good first half without creating too much. We didn't move the ball quick enough in the second half and didn't create enough opportunities. It had 0-0 written all over it until they scored a freak goal. I've got a bitter taste in my mouth. We had a lack of energy but they've given me everything. It was maybe one step too many."

The Stones were beaten by Chris Maguire's 88th-minute long-range free-kick in what was their fourth home game in eight days.

"We've got battered bodies," said Cox. "We've had to grind through and we knew it was going to be a whole squad effort. Huge praise to the boys to get us in the position we are in [to stay up]. We will go again on Saturday and we'll go there trying to get three points. We know the importance of the game. We aren't worried about what's going on elsewhere. We know if we perform to our max we'll be ok. It's about keeping a cool head and not letting the emotion of the game take over. It's about being calm and cool."

Jack Young was very much calm and cool in the middle of the park for the Stones.

"We were team in control and the goal is just a freak," said the midfielder on loan from Wycombe. "We could have been more clinical in the final third. We have to dust ourselves down and go again on Saturday. We must take bits form this performance and keep going. The mood in the group is very high and we are going towards the same goal. We'll go into the game to get three points. Nothing else is good enough. We want to finish the season as high as possible."

Eastleigh manager Kelvin Davies was pleased his side executed the game plan.

We know Wealdstone like to have the ball and we were comfortable about them having the ball," said Davies. "We spoke about what we do when they came into our engagement areas and the boys did that. We changed the shape a bit as I wanted to create a bit of stimulus. We didn't want to float until the send of the season. We had a great focus about us. We felt the longer the game went on the more risk they [Wealdstone[ would take. – and we could we exploit that, which we did."

Pictures by Jon Taffel