Winchester City's 4-0 win at Brockenhurst last night may have been David Malone's swan-song with the FA Vase holders.

Word is rife that the director of football is on the brink of quitting the Denplan City Ground AGAIN - less than two months after doing a U-turn on his last departure in November.

Indications are that Malone, pictured above, will leave the Sydenhams Wessex League champions by the end of the week and could soon reappear at either a Conference South or a Ryman League club.

When Malone last left Winchester, he pointed to the club's failure to get promoted last summer as his main source of disappointment.

But the wealthy Winchester businessman later hinted that his real reason for quitting was that he was fed up with carrying the bulk of the club's financial burden.

On returning at the beginning of January, he warned: "If other people don't do what they say they're going to do, be it sorting out financial issues or the ground, then I won't be there next season - and that's a promise."

Sources close to the club suggest Malone's patience has already run out and he now believes he made a huge mistake going back.

Should he join another club, he could ease Winchester's wage bill by asking four or five of their highest-paid players to go with him.

In his brief time away from Winchester, Malone explored avenues with clubs from higher up the pyramid, including Conference South play-off chasers Basingstoke Town and Ryman 1 strugglers Newport IoW.

He is also a big admirer of Ryman Premier duo Eastleigh and Salisbury, who come face to face at the Sparshatts Stadium tonight (7.45pm).

Last night's victory at Brockenhurst has moved defending champions City to within a point of leaders Thatcham with three games in hand.

Ian Mancey broke the deadlock after 22 minutes, tapping home the rebound when Badgers' keeper Iain Brunnschweiler palmed away Mark Jones's header.

Shaun Dyke struck the second from the penalty spot in 52nd minute after Mancey had been floored by Steve Hillyer.

Lloyd Webber's challenge set up Jamie Musselwhite to fire in number three on the hour and Matt Bicknell rounded off the scoring after Jamie Laidlaw's shot had come back off Brunnschweiler from Dyke's cross.

Lymington Town suffered their first league defeat for exactly five months last night when they were beaten 1-0 away at Alresford Town, writes DEREK HAWKINS.

The Wessex Division 2 pacesetters hadn't been beaten since they went down 3-2 at Locks Heath on September 15 and it was only the second time that the free-scoring Foresters have failed to find the net this season.

"I've no complaints about the result," admitted Lymington manager John Pyatt.

Lymington did everything but score, with John Bailey hitting the woodwork while Phil Stone, Paul Sims and Kev James all had efforts cleared off the line.

The only goal came after five minutes when James sliced the ball into his own net.