Winchester City - needing victory at title rivals Wimborne tomorrow to be crowned Wessex League champions - have scoffed at suggestions that Ken Cunningham-Brown could make a wholesale raid on their squad this summer.

Former Andover boss Cunningham-Brown intends to get back into football next season after a two-year break.

And rumours suggest that his first aim would be to re-sign three of City's FA Vase heroes who all played for him at Andover.

Wing-backs Matthew Bicknell and Shaun Dyke and City's 72-goal top gun Andy Forbes were all part of Cunningham-Brown's Andover dream team who won the Wessex League twice and the Hampshire Senior Cup at the start of the new millennium.

Bashley have had exploratory talks with Cunningham-Brown, but City's director of football David Malone reckons it's total nonsense to suggest that the wealthy racehorse trainer could prise away three of the jewels in the City crown.

Malone - a former Bashley chairman - stated: "I'm certain that wherever Ken goes he'll be interested in our players, but all of them are under contract.

"Of course, you can never say someone is not for sale. For the right money, you'd sell your grandmother!

"If Ken offered enough, I'd drive the players down to Bashley myself, if that's where he goes, but Bashley couldn't afford them!

"I like Ken, but there's absolutely no chance of him coming in and taking away our players."

Speculation about the future of Winchester's galaxy of stars is bound to intensify if the would-be champions fail to get promotion.

That was looking more likely this week when the Southern League informed them in writing that their Abbotts Barton base did not comply with ground grading regulations.

As far as the Wessex League are concerned that has killed City's promotion chances stone dead, but Malone is not convinced.

The City Ground's biggest shortcoming is its open fencing which Winchester believed would require planning permission to replace.

But the council told them on Wednesday that no such permission permission was necessary and they are free to go ahead with the work.

Malone said: "We got straight back to the Southern League to ask them if they would consider re-inspecting the ground in the first week in May. They haven't promised we would definitely get in, but they've said they'll do their best to come back and have another look.

"They've still got to find 16 feeder league clubs and I'm not sure how many fall within the rules. Somewhere along the line they'll surely have to break those rules by taking clubs either without the facilities or a top-two finish."

Winchester and Wimborne are currently locked on 99 points at the Wessex summit, but City have a vastly superior goal difference plus two games in hand.

It was the Magpies who took the spoils 2-1 at the City Ground early in the season, but Neil Hards's men avenged that with February's comfortable 4-1 Wessex League Cup win at The Cuthbury.

Winchester's fixture-packed end to the season has taken its toll on the squad and neither Matt Bicknell nor fellow left-sided player Liam Green are likely to feature tomorrow. Both are battling persistent injuries and Hards said: "They're champing at the bit to play, but they've tried to come back too early before and the last thing they need is to get so far down the line and then get injured again."

He added: "If we do go on and win the league now, I couldn't be more pleased for the players. It's what they deserve."