THE good news for Winchester City's Sydenhams Wessex League title rivals is that Neil Hards's reigning champions are not perfect.

Having set themselves the challenge of achieving a third clean sheet to go with their third straight win of the new season, they blotted their copybook when a mistake by keeper Simon Arthur allowed VT FC's Gary Male to pierce their defence for the first time.

But the seriously bad news for those dreaming of knocking Winchester off their lofty perch is that their revamped squad looks as good, if not better, than the one that reigned supreme in the Vase, Wessex League and League Cup last term.

Everyone's agreed that there will never be another 76-goal marksman like the departed Andy Forbes, but Saturday's brace man Jamie Laidlaw is already striking up an ominously good partnership with the towering Ian Mancey.

And though City's Vase-winning skipper Danny Smith has climbed the Pyramid with Forbes at Eastleigh, City have a new midfield heartbeat in former Wimborne Town hotshot Mark Smith.

Defensively they have six players vying for three places and on Saturday there was still no room for Dave Goss, who has turned down a move to Bashley.

Mark Jones, their summer signing from Bash, again impressed with his cool head and dependability, while former Wimborne skipper Darren Powell is still waiting in the wings with a calf injury.

"Overall we're probably a better side now," reflected City's director of football David Malone, as City maintained their 100 per cent start with a 4-1 victory. "Mark Jones is class and Mark Smith is probably a better attacking player than Danny. He's maybe not as good defensively as Danny, but he'll get more goals.

"Up front, Jamie Laidlaw and Stuart Cannie (ex-Bashley) give more to the game in general, even if they don't score four out of five chances like Forbesy did."

For VT, fresh up from the Hampshire Premier Division, this was their first taste of Wessex defeat.

Dave Diaper's side are themselves capable of handing out a few hidings as they demonstrated with a 6-0 opening-day slaying of Alton, but they discovered that it's not so easy against a slick attacking force like Winchester, who keep teams so well occupied at the back.

Three goals in a stunning 15-minute spell from Lloyd Webber, Laidlaw and Ian Mancey more or less settled the issue before Arthur misjudged ex-Saint Kevin Gibbens's lofted ball forward for Male to find an empty net for VT with 28 minutes gone.

Laidlaw glanced home his second on 69 minutes following a quality cross from half-time substitute Shaun Dyke, who has lost his customary starting place on the right to young Adam Rogers.

VT manager Dave Diaper said: "At any level, you can't afford to make mistakes and give away goals like we did in that 15-minute spell. We shot ourselves in the foot.

"Last season we didn't need to be that sharp in defence and it's time to wise up a bit.

"At times it was men against boys, but you'd expect that playing against a team like Winchester who belong two levels up.

"It's the quality players they can bring on that makes the difference. The fourth goal was class - a great ball in by Dyke and a good finish.

"But I think we can hold our heads up. We played with a bit of discipline and the good thing is that we didn't cave in. Losing 4-1 is not the end of the world."

Winchester coach Steve Moss, taking charge in the absence of holidaying manager Hards, was reasonably satisfied with the performance, but disappointed about conceding.

He said: "For the first 30 minutes we were superb. On chances created today we should have been in double figures.

"The only thing is that we'd kept two clean sheets and wanted another one today, but we conceded a sloppy goal.

"Jamie Laidlaw was outstanding and should have had a hat-trick. As for Mancey, he was suspended at the start of last season and then injured after that, but we all agree we could be looking at 50 or 60 goals from him this time."