DEFENDER Toby Redwood's long-awaited comeback for Winchester City was over before it began.

The jubilation that followed his return from an 82-day suspension quickly evaporated when his knee buckled in his first training session.

"Toby was keen as mustard to start playing again, but he'd only been back training five minutes when his knee went," reported manager Neil Hards.

"He's had it looked at and been advised to get it sorted out by surgery, so we've lost him for the rest of the season."

The silver lining for City is the emergence of reserve defender Jamie Austen as a tower of strength at the back.

Plucked out of local football by City's shrewd reserve/youth development manager Kevin Dixon, the youngster is developing into one of the finds of the season.

"Jamie's only a kiddy, but he's played the last five or six games on the trot and we've won every one of them," said Hards. "He's a big, tall lad, very composed on the ball and quick for his size. His distribution's good too.

"With all the injuries we've had, it's been a bit of a juggling act to keep things going, but youngsters like midfielder Danny Wakefield and striker Paul Burnett have come in and done a decent job.

"Paul's flitted in and out for us this season but he came off the bench against Gosport in the Hampshire Senior Cup and scored twice. We don't have the strength in depth any more, so it's been a case of bringing these youngsters through."

With Burnett and Lloyd Webber picking up knocks in Tuesday's 3-0 win at Fareham and Mark Smith going off with a stomach bug, league leaders City are not in the best of health for tomorrow's big title showdown at AFC Newbury.

Adam Rogers (medial ligaments) is sidelined for three weeks, Matt Bicknell (foot) and Ian Buckman (tendonitis) both missed the Fareham game and Ian Mancey is not yet fully over thigh trouble.

Yet, despite their problems, City have pulled four points clear at the top of the table after briefly losing the leadership to Lymington & New Milton last week.

Performances may lack the swagger of the golden Forbes, Smith and Dyke era, but Hards said: "The togetherness and team spirit is first class."

Having drawn with title rivals Lymington last Saturday, Newbury unexpectedly slipped up 2-0 at Christchurch on Tuesday to fall 11 points behind City with two games in hand.

Hards, though, is full of praise for the Berkshire club, saying: "They did the Wessex League proud in the Vase. Guy (Whittingham) has a very good group of players there and tomorrow's going to be tough.

"I cancelled training last night and I just hope we can get over all our knocks and viruses and get a strong side out."