BOURNEMOUTH chairman Peter Phillips admits a lot of lower league clubs are 'skint' and blames the collapse of the transfer market for that sad state of affairs.

Phillips agreed that very few clubs between the DML Eastern Division and the Nationwide League Second Division would be happy to part with £30,000 for Winchester goal machine Andy Forbes.

Cherries haven't paid a transfer fee since shelling out £12,000 for Derek Holmes from Ross County in 2001.

Compare that to non-league Salisbury City, who bought Craig Davis from Bashley for £15,000 and his teammate Aaron Cook for £10,000 earlier this year!

Indeed, Bournemouth have had to rely on donations from supporters (£85,000 in each of the past two seasons) to fund the wages of the signings they have made in recent years - such as the return of goalkeeper Neil Moss from St Mary's and midfielder Marcus Browning.

Even if Cherries wanted to sign 74-goal Forbes, they'd have to go to their fans again - and it's unlikely they'd be willing to stump up for someone who has never played higher than the Wessex League.

Phillips lamented: "It's true that a lot of Second and Third Division clubs are skint. It's a tough business at this level.

"The collapse of the transfer market has had the biggest impact of all, more so than the collapse of ITV Digital.

"If you look at our accounts from the last ten or more years you will see that, for many years, we were able to sell a couple of players to higher division clubs for around £500,000 a year. That's all dried up.

"In the two years I've been chairman, we've not had a single decent bid for any of our players - and we have some good ones.

"A few years ago we sold Eddie Howe and Richard Hughes to Portsmouth for around £500,000. Now we have some players as good as them but we can't expect any-thing like that sort of money for them."

Phillips added: "Andy Forbes has scored a lot of goals and goalscorers are like gold dust - if he really wanted to be in the professional leagues, I think he would be.

"But I don't think there are many clubs who'd pay City £30,000 - a lot of players are available on free transfers these days.

"We could do with a 25 goals a season striker, but we're probably going to have to look to the free transfer market."

It wasn't just Pompey making raids on Dean Court in recent years, back in the late 1990s Saints paid Cherries £150,000 for Portuguese striker Dani Rodrigues.

The forward's time at The Dell was ruined by two broken legs and he drifted off to Greece via loan spells at Bristol City and a trial with Walsall.

Last weekend, he was back in style, scoring twice on his Yeovil first team debut after coming on as a sub against Bury.

"The situation has nearly turned ar-ound," Phillips remarked. "You'll probably see more clubs us ourselves take the bigger clubs' most promising players on loan - first team football's better than reserve football.

"Our fans wouldn't be too happy about us being an official feeder club for anyone, but we have good relationships with Portsmouth thanks to Harry Redknapp.

"He lent us Rio Ferdinand and Jermain Defoe at West Ham and he's helped us out with Lewis Buxton this season.

"Paul Sturrock knows our manager well so we're hopeful of establishing an even better relationship with them as well."