JAMES Taylor's omission from Havant & Waterlooville's side has alerted the attentions of his old club Bashley.

The Foresters have enquired after the prolific hitman who controversially slipped through their fingers for nothing 18 months ago after Bashley breached the terms of his contract.

Although Taylor finished second highest scorer in the Dr Martens Premier Division last season, he has been squeezed out of H&W's starting line-up this term by Dave Leworthy and Jamie O'Rourke.

Bashley are crying out for a 30 goal-a-season man to boost their Eastern Division fortunes and assistant manager Trevor Senior confirmed: "We enquired after James because he's not been playing and, rather than sit on the bench with Havant, he could come back and do us a favour."

According to H&W co-manager Mick Jenkins, Bashley are not to the only club to have shown interest in Southampton-based Taylor, but he was loathed to unsettle the player with talk of a move.

"James hasn't come to us and said he wants away. Having allowed Dave Wakefield to go on loan to Salisbury, we're not in an ideal situation to let him go because we'd be short of cover if we lost Dave or Jamie for any reason," he said.

"But, of course, every player has his price and if a club came in with a sensible offer then we'd have to listen.

"We're not going to give James a way. He's got a hell of strike rate and is a valuable commodity."

Bashley last season made an unsuccessful £17,500 bid for Taylor.

H&W skipper Gary MacDonald, linked with trials for Peterborough United, sits out a one-match suspension tomorrow, but player/co-manager Liam Daish returns from the sin bin for the visit of Cambridge City. Paul Wood hopes to be fit after back and neck problems.

H&W's Hampshire Senior Cup quarter-final against Farnborough Town has been rearranged for Sunday week (February 4, 2pm) at Westleigh Park.

Crisis club Salisbury remain determined to fulfil their Premier Division fixture at Moor Green amid chairman Ray McEnhill's attempts to get the board of directors to resign.

Secretary Sean Gallagher: "We will be honouring our fixtures if at all possible. If we don't, we will leave ourselves open to a fine."

Further bad news for the Wiltshire Whites is that midfielder Wayne Turk is out for up to two months with a broken bone in the foot.

Tyronne Bowers is doubtful with knee ligament problems and Scott Bartlett begins a three-match suspension.

Bashley - devoid of an Eastern Division win since October 25 - are hoping goalkeeper Geoff Sim will be fit to face lowly Dartford at the Recreation Ground.

Sim's pelvis is slightly out of alignment, causing pain in his kicking muscle, so reserve keeper Ollie Rastall is on standby.

New Bash signing Robbie Harbut stands by for his debut but there are question marks over Paul Masters (back) and Roy Young (hamstring).

Newport launch into a gruelling run of five games in 11 days at Witney Town tomorrow as the knock-on effects of the winter floods begin to bite.

Last Tuesday's Hampshire Senior Cup washout at Lymington & New Milton was their 12th postponement of a stop-start season.

Manager Tony Mount knows the odds are now stacked against his eighth-placed side challenging for Eastern Division promotion.

Not only have they got a huge backlog of games to contend with, but they must urgently address their poor away form which has yielded just four league wins on the road.

"We've had a long discussion about our away performances but talk is cheap and I'll be interested to see the response tomorrow," said Mount.

"We've only won once at Witney in 11 seasons."

Danny Rofe returns to the squad after recovering from pneumonia but Adam Holbrook is suspended and question marks hover over flu victim Steve Moss and injured trio Karl Lis, Steve Watt and Fraser Quirke.

Newport's HSC quarter-final trip to Lymington is now next Thursday (February 1) - just two days after they entertain Langney Sports in the league.