BAT skipper Paul Masters says it was a tug of the heartstrings that stopped him signing for Winchester City.

The former Saints midfielder, who leads the Tobaccomen into FA Vase second qualifying round action at home to Shoreham tomorrow, admits he was "very close" to agreeing to join the Vase holders last week.

In the end, though, it was loyalty to BAT - and, in particular, their infectiously enthusiastic manager Andy Leader - that swayed him to stay at Southern Gardens. If it hadn't been for Leader and his BAT management team of Mike Read and Danny Bowers, the 32-year-old admits he would have hung his boots up long ago.

After more than a decade in local football, including stops at Havant, Bashley and Totton, Masters admits he "fell out of love" with non-league a couple of years back and was going call it a day at Hedge End.

But Leader identified a bit of himself in the gritty midfielder and convinced Masters he was well short of his sell-by date.

Masters said: "Andy rekindled my passion for the game. He's a very enthusiastic character who's 120 per cent committed to training and matches and that's rubbed off on me.

"When I came to BAT I was a stone overweight and I wasn't going to carry on this season unless I got back in shape. I'm down to 11 stone now and, whether I can keep the weight off I don't know, but I feel good and I'm enjoying my football again."

The temptation to join Winchester was great, however - not least because Masters has so many former teammates at the Denplan City Ground.

He confessed: "Winchester appealed to me because they're the best side in the league and I've got a lot of time for the management team there. I played with Neil Hards and Gary Green at Havant and Mark Blake was at Saints with me. Those are the sort of characters I'd want to play for and Winchester's a professionally run club who are going places.

"But at my age enjoying your football is important too and I think that maybe it would be wrong to uproot myself when things are going well at BAT. We've got a lot of good youngsters and, in the next couple of seasons, we should have quite a successful side.

"Turning Winchester down is the hardest decision I've ever had to make and I know the chance won't come again.

"But Andy, Mike and Danny worked really hard with me in pre-season and Andy's threatened to pin me up against the wall if I leave!"

BAT welcome James Roden back from a three-week suspension tomorrow, while the Platt brothers - Jamie and Dean - are both fit again. Andy Chance is back available, but Paul West is still sin-binned.