HAVANT & Waterlooville's Trevor Brock has flattened rumours about a possible merger with Fareham Town, writes WENDY GEE.

"Not in million years!" said the Hawks' secretary, who is at a loss to know what the Conference South newcomers could gain from amalgamating with their Wessex League neighbours.

Disgruntled Fareham fans have had a bee in their bonnet about the two clubs ever since Town scrapped their reserve side last month and agreed to hire their pitch to Hawks' reserves and youth teams.

Brock said: "People have put two and two together and are coming up with 17, but what would we have to gain? I suppose the fact we're hiring Fareham's pitch has got their fans talking, but all that's happened is that we've jumped in a gap so that we can keep our playing surface as nice as possible.

"It's not even the case that we'll be playing all our reserve games there. We'll just hire the pitch on a one-off basis when we need to."

Fareham are today expected to unveil a new managerial team at Cams Alders, replacing ex-Saint Jon Gittens who quit last week.

Although the club's unofficial website has stated that Louis Savage and Louis Bell - two youth coaches who have worked with ex-Fareham boss Duncan Pratt - will be in charge for Saturday's (3pm) home friendly against Horndean, chairman Bob Ralls was unable to confirm that yesterday.

He did, however, clarify that despite the club's money-saving move to disband their reserves, the first-team budget will be unaffected.

He said: "The club's been running at a deficit for many years, certainly before we (The Ralls Group) came here, but we're not in financial trouble and there's no talk of first-team budget cuts.

"After a long meeting with Jon Gittens last week we mutually agreed that we weren't able to satisfy Jon's concerns. He felt that scrapping the reserves was a backward step."

Rumours have also been doing the rounds that long-serving goalkeeper Lee Webber is ready to leave, but Ralls said: "He played in our friendly win at Bishop's Waltham on Saturday and is a very valuable member of our squad. Lee is the epitome of what Fareham Town is."