Bashley boss Geoff Butler likes what he's seen of borrowed Eastleigh striker Barry Mason - so much so that he's asked the Premier Division club about the prospects of making him a permanent fixture for the Foresters.

But Eastleigh boss Paul Doswell wants to take a closer look at the Southampton teenager in pre-season and Butler is unsure whether he would want Mason back next term if he were made available on loan.

He said: "Understandably, Paul doesn't want to lose good players, but I'm not sure Barry's ready for Eastleigh's level just yet and, if they go up to the Conference South next season, which I hope they will, it would probably put him even further away from the first team.

"If they don't feel he's quite ready for them next year, it may be that they'll put him on contract and loan him out again. But, much as I'm grateful to Eastleigh for helping us this year, I'd like to think that next season Bashley will be in a situation where we're not reliant on things like that.

"We're really happy to have Barry with us, but at the end of the day Eastleigh could loan him to us next season and take him back at any time they wanted, which wouldn't be good for us.

"I'd rather the time and effort we put into bringing young players through had something on the end of it for Bashley."

But he added hastily: "That doesn't mean we wouldn't consider having Barry here again or that we're in any way ungrateful to Eastleigh. I'd like to thank Paul for helping us."

Although Mason is not yet the finished article, Butler likes what he's seen so far of the muscular frontrunner.

"The lad's quick, strong and enthusiastic and he puts himself about a bit," he said.

"He does a lot of work outside the area, holds the ball up well and chases lost causes, but he hasn't scored for us yet and I'd like to see him with the ball at his feet facing their goal a bit more."

Bash - home to Molesey tomorrow (3pm) and away to Newport IOW on Monday (3pm) - hope to have Gary Langrish and another Eastleigh loan player Sam Wyeth back from ankle trouble.

lNewport IoW are just three points above the relegation zone going into tomorrow's daunting assignment at second-placed Walton & Hersham.

The Islanders are still hoping to re-sign their former striker, Fraser Quirke, right, from Fleet Town, but manager John Linington said rather doubtfully: "He hurt his back last weekend and I'm not sure now whether he's coming."

Until recently Dave Greening had been doing the business up front for Port, but the 17-goal hitman has lost his touch of late and Linington admitted: "When he's not scoring, he doesn't punch his weight. We could do with Fraser to give us a bit of muscle."

To make matters worse for Newport, French striker Olamide Dedegbe is struggling with a possible hernia problem and suspensions are looming next week for James Dunk, who was sent off last Saturday, and Adam Barsdell, who has totted up ten bookings.

Fleet can take a giant stride towards Ryman survival by beating bottom club Croydon at Calthorpe Park today. On Monday they travel to Leatherhead.