KELVIN Davis questioned Eastleigh's mentality following a "humbling" 4-0 defeat to National League play-off hopefuls Rochdale on Saturday.
Devante Rodney scored twice as Rochdale stabilised their play-off push with a resounding victory over a sliding Spitfires at the Crown Oil Arena.
Fifth-placed Rochdale, who had not won in three prior attempts in all competitions, took the lead after 11 minutes as Tobi Adebayo-Rowling found Rodney with a low cross that was rifled into the bottom corner.
The hosts’ lead was doubled only seven minutes later as Luis Fernandez put through his own net while Sam Beckwith was trying to turn home Aidan Barlow’s delivery.
Club favourite Ian Henderson fired Dale well clear of Easteigh with a goal from another Adebayo-Rowling tee-up, this time into the near post, in the 63rd minute.
The contest was over when Rodney converted Adebayo-Rowling’s third assist 12 minutes later to extend the Spitfires' winless run to a sixth match.
"It's a humbling experience if I'm honest. We spoke last week about the difficulty of reaching the levels we've been at at times this season.
" Since that point, I've felt a different mentality in the group, and against a quality side, if your mentality's not right, then you lose a bit of your heart, which is what we did today.
"I don't like saying that because you want to be supportive of the group, and you want the group to emulate yourself.
But ultimately, today we saw the side of our squad and our team that we don't like to see, and it came out to play too often and too many times today.
"There was a bit of a weakness in our mentality and in the group, although we started really well, and that gave us a good foot in the game.
"Early on, I thought we were at the races, and I thought the game plan looked like it was going to have some success.
"Then the goals come and the mentality changes and then it's very difficult. I think we've got a mentality amongst us where the first goal seems to be pretty damaging."
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