Eastleigh are through to the first round proper of the FA Cup after Ben House notched a dramatic 3-2 winner deep into extra-time in Tuesday evening’s replay against Folkestone Invicta at Cheriton Road.

The Spitfires were within seconds of being knocked out themselves when Gillingham loan defender Christian Maghoma made it 2-2 with the last kick of Saturday’s Silverlake Stadium thriller.

Eastleigh looked as though they might ease through the replay when goals by Tom Whelan and Jake Hesketh gave them a 2-0 lead, but despite being reduced to ten men, Folkestone scored twice to take the fourth qualifying round tie into added time.

House got his winner six minutes from time to tee up a testing first round trip to National League high fliers Boreham Wood on Saturday week.

Whelan, left out of the starting line-up at Stoneham lane, fired Eastleigh into a half-time replay lead from Vince Harper’s leftwing cross.

Hesketh’s first goal since joining Spitfires doubled Eastleigh’s lead, but even though Folkestone had a man sent off, they cut the lead through Ade Yusuff and then, 12 minutes from time, equalized through Scott Heard.

With Folkestone flagging, Eastleigh wasted a spate of chances to settle the tie inside 90 minutes, but got their just deserts in the end through House.

It took a last gasp, last kick of the match equalizer by Gillingham loanee Christian Maghoma to deny the Isthmian League club victory in the original meeting at the Silverlake Stadium.

Having looked to have the tie in the bag with three goals in the opening 18 minutes, Folkestone were rocked by a second half Eastleigh comeback, which saw the Spitfires score twice in five minutes before making it 3-3 right on the final whistle.

Eastleigh boss Ben Strevens made five changes and opted for a 3-5-2 system, one his team struggled to get to grips with as Folkestone struck twice through Alfie Paxman in the initial five minutes.

Spitfires were all over the place at the back and when Scott Heard made it 3-0 a cup shock was on the cards.

Fortunately for Eastleigh, the Kent visitors didn’t strike a fourth potentially killer blow and when an out-of-sorts Ryan Hill fired home a penalty spot a comeback was under way.

It was all hands to the pump when Ty Barnett clawed it back to 3-2, but Folkestone clung on until Maghoma saved it for Eastleigh deep into stoppage time.