DIRECTOR of football David Malone admits he would be "extremely surprised" if striker Jamie Laidlaw left champions Winchester City to join Wessex League title rivals Gosport Borough.

Having abandoned their quest to sign Floyd Hamodu from Fareham Town, Gosport have lodged notice of approach for the 28-year-old son of former Portsmouth and Middlesbrough professional Joe Laidlaw.

With Winchester looking in fine fettle to repeat their Wessex and Vase successes of last season, Malone does not believe footballing ambitions could be an incentive for leaving.

Neither can it be lack of first- team opportunity. Laidlaw has started the bulk of City's games this season and already has 14 goals in the bag, scoring two braces in the last week alone.

Malone confessed: "I don't know the strength or otherwise of Gosport's approach and whether Jamie would consider going. He's a Portsmouth lad who knows a few people down there, but the only reason I could think of for him leaving would be if he's offered a vastly superior financial package.

"We won't get into an auction for him, but we really don't want to lose him. He's a decent, clean-living lad who gets on with his job and scores goals.

"But if he does go, we can't complain. We take players from other clubs and other clubs are entitled to do it to us."

Laidlaw, formerly with Swindon, Yeovil, Farnborough and Bashley, joined City towards the back end of last season after being released by Sussex League outfit Chichester City United.

"We took him on a trial basis and agreed for him to stay this season on a handshake," said Malone. "We had five or six strikers here to begin with, but Jamie's managed to see off Stuart Cannie (now Wimborne) and also BAT's Richard Gregory, who decided against joining us because there was too much competition.

"We're down to three strikers now with Jamie, Ian Mancey and Jamie Musselwhite and if he went to Gosport he'd find competition for frontline places just the same as there is here.

"If he stays with us he knows he'll play 35 to 40 games a season because we change the strikers round. Mancey, for example, sat on the bench for the whole game against Alton last week.

Gosport - home to AFC Totton tonight - are currently fourth in the Wessex title chase, nine points adrift of Winchester with three games in hand.

Last Friday, manager Mick Marsh rested out-of-sorts frontrunner Graham Lindsey in favour of Abdoulie N'Doye, who scored their third and last goal in a 3-0 home win over Hamble ASSC. Mark Tryon and Danny Sturman were also on target.

Laidlaw (2), Mancey (2), Mark Blake, Ian Buckman and Lloyd Webber overturned Danny Hatcher's opener in City's 7-1 cruise at Cowes Sports.

Kevin James (3) and Darren Crook (2) carved up Lymington & New Milton's goals between them in Friday's 5-0 win over Downton. The seventh-placed Linnets travel to Portland tonight.