EASTLEIGH manager Chris Todd conceded his side’s play-off dream is all but over after the heartbreaking defeat at home to Tranmere Rovers.

James Norwood’s 87th-minute header stunned most of the 3,269 crowd at the Silverlake Stadium – while sending the 533 from Tranmere into raptures.

As both sets of fans digested the news that Braintree were 3-2 up at Wrexham, a result that tightened the Essex club’s grip on fifth place, Norwood headed his 21st goal of the season over a helpless Ross Flitney.

A draw would at least have kept Eastleigh in with a chance of finishing in the top five for a second successive season ahead of this weekend’s trip to Woking.

But Norwood’s looping header over Flitney put paid to any realistic chance of that.

Lois Maynard beat Jamie Turley and Jai Reason in diverting a free-kick from the halfway line with a diving header into the area.

It was inadvertently flicked on by Ben Strevens and Norwood pounced on the edge of the six-yard box as Will Evans desperately appealed for offside.

Five minutes earlier, Reason had Eastleigh’s best chance of the afternoon, but his close-range header was saved at the far post, following Joe Partington’s pinpoint cross.

“I wasn’t expecting it to come to me, it was a good save and I couldn’t quite get the rebound,” said Reason, whose former club Braintree now has a three-point cushion over the chasing pack going into the final round of games.

Eastleigh can only make the play-offs if they win at Woking on Saturday, Braintree lose at home to Altrincham and Tranmere do not win at home to Grimsby.

Even that may not be enough as Braintree’s goal difference is three superior.

Todd said: “We’re not getting into the play-offs now, we’re in a very difficult position. But you never quite know.

“We’ll go into the last game and give it our best shot and see what happens. It’s theirs to lose. Anything can happen in football but we have to win by a big margin and hope the other games go our way.

“We’ve got to keep going till the end.”

Eastleigh’s defeat was their first in 11 matches.

Todd continued: “On another day, Jai scores and we win the game. We didn’t create enough, we didn’t have enough guile.

“We just didn’t do enough to win, but it wasn’t through lack of effort. There wasn’t a lot in the game, it was very nip and tuck. I thought they would come at us more than they did, we were quite comfortable.

“So to then concede like we did was disappointing. We let ourselves down but have to keep going.”

To compound Eastleigh’s misery, they lost Luke Coulson, who has been so impressive since signing from Oxford City, to an ankle injury after just 18 minutes.

Then captain Andy Drury limped off.

“We lost two of our more creative players to injury which hindered us a little bit and we never really fired after that,” continued Todd.

Reason believes fear of failure got to the team.

He said: “We didn’t want to make a mistake, we were quite tight and didn’t really offer anything. It’s very frustrating but we’ll give it our all in the last game – you just never know.

“We were also disappointed not to get anything from Halifax but if we don’t make the play-offs it won’t be because of how we played in the last few games, it’ll be because of our consistency earlier in the season.”

Eastleigh: Flitney, Partington, Green, Evans, Turley, Reason, Strevens, Drury (Cook 57), Coulson (Payne 18), Midson (Odubade 67), Tubbs. Subs not used: Poke, Reid.

Tranmere: Davies, Vaughan, McNulty (Riley 46), Ihiekwe, Ridehalgh; Kirby (Mekki 59), Jennings, Harris (Taylor-Fletcher 79), Maynard, Hughes; Norwood. Subs not used: Turner, Higdon.