THERE will be no grey clouds hanging over Winchester City's squad for their Hampshire Senior Cup trip to the Channel Islands tomorrow - despite Tuesday's unexpected 3-2 league defeat at Wimborne Town.

Having won a dozen games in succession, the FA Vase holders were upstaged by the Magpies, but manager Neil Hards reckons Wimborne boss Paul Arnold still has more problems than he does.

He reflected: "It was one of those nights when it wasn't to be for us, but we went to Wimborne having won 12 on the trot and I'm not going to go overboard about losing one game.

"The players have worked really hard over the last couple of months and I think they've answered a few of the critics who thought we were a spent force after the start we had."

Despite the defeat, City are still a comfortable six points clear of Gosport at the Wessex summit - and a whopping 16 points better off than sixth-placed Wimborne, who were last season's runners-up.

Hards said: "If I was the manager of Wimborne, I'd be asking questions about the commitment and attitude of the side. If they're capable of doing that against us, why haven't they been doing it every week instead of lagging in mid-table? They're obviously capable of playing well, but they're only doing it as and when they want to.

"That's never been an issue for us. Even though we lost on Tuesday, I was pleased with the way we played. We created enough chances to have buried a hatful.

"But we're not going to get our own way in every game and defensively we let ourselves down a bit. You can't let a guy (Paul Roast) head home a corner from two yards out. But I'm not going to knock the players. They worked really hard."

Winchester have several key names missing for tomorrow's HSC second round assignment at St Peters, Jersey.

Rearguard stalwart Mark Blake faces another fortnight out with medial ligament damage, Kieron Hall and Ian Mancey are both unavailable and skipper Lloyd Webber is nursing serious facial injuries (see report above).