PAUL Sales, the man who gloriously headed Eastleigh into the Conference South just over a month ago, is on his way out of the Sparshatts Stadium.

Instead of taking the next stride up the non-League pyramid with Eastleigh, the 31-year-old hitman is on his way back to Salisbury City for their forthcoming Southern Premier Division campaign.

The clubs have agreed an undisclosed fee and the formal transfer forms are expected to be completed tonight.

Sales became the toast of Ten Acres when he nodded home Eastleigh's second-half winner, pictured, in a 2-1 victory over Leyton in the Ryman Premier play-off final last month.

He is widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, non-league strikers in the area but, with former Reading marksman Neville Roach arriving from Basingstoke, Sales admits he could not be certain of a starting place in the Conference South.

"At my age I want to be playing every week," he said. "I think I'm good enough to play every week for Eastleigh, but that's down to the manager and they've signed another striker, haven't they?"

After realising the dream of Conference South football with one club, Sales will have to do it all over again with Salisbury, but he doesn't mind missing out on Eastleigh's big, new adventure.

"To be honest, I don't think there's too much difference between the levels," he said. "Apart from five or six good teams in the Conference South, the rest are much the same as us and we proved that at Eastleigh by beating Weymouth and Dorchester."

Sales is still a great favourite at Salisbury having netted 75 goals in 135 appearances for the Whites between 1998 and 2002.

His decision to rejoin Bashley dented his popularity slightly, but it came during a season struggle and the Old Sarum fans are sure to welcome him back with open arms.

"I really enjoyed playing for Salisbury," said Sales, "but things went wrong in my last year there.

"They're an up and coming club again now though and I'm looking forward to playing with people like Tommy Widdrington and some of my old Bashley teammates like Aaron Cook and Craig Davis."

Sales was in hospital yesterday having a tidy-up operation on his knee, but he expects to start training in five to six weeks' time.

Eastleigh, meanwhile, are expected to up their chase for Havant & Waterlooville marksman James Taylor as Sales's replacement.