SAINTS keeper Neil Moss was returning to the club today after a successful loan spell at Third Division high-fliers Bournemouth.

The 27-year-old refuses to rule out a permanent return to Dean Court when his St Mary's contract expires at the end of this season.

Since returning to his former club to ease Cherries' goalkeeping crisis in September, Moss has been on the winning side 12 times in 19 starts, keeping five clean sheets.

The New Milton-born man, pictured, admits he would be keen to rekindle his Dean Court relationship when his Saints contract expires at the end of this season.

Moss, who has only made 22 league starts for Saints since a £250,000 switch from Cherries in 1995, told our sister paper The Bournemouth Daily Echo: "If there was an opportunity for me to come back here permanently at the end of the season I'd definitely be interested.

"I've been very impressed by the standard of the players.

"I feel the club's definitely going forward and one of the main things you look at as a player is how the club's getting on.

"Okay, there are financial difficulties here but you're going to find that probably at every club below the Premier League so that isn't really an issue.

"When I get back to Southampton I'm going to fight my corner.

"Obviously they've brought in Antti Niemi and Paul Jones is still there and the young lad Alan Blayney has been sat on the bench the last few games.

"So it's up to me to go back, train as hard as I possibly can and see where I can go from there.

"But if things don't happen for me at Southampton then obviously I will have to look at my future."

Moss added: "I said when I came here that I wanted to be able to go away and leave the club in a better position than they were when I arrived and we are.

"We're third in the league, we're still in the FA Cup and LDV Vans Trophy and we're playing well so it will definitely be sad for me to leave.

"Most of the players should be playing above the Third Division."

GARRY Monk made his Sheffield Wednesday debut in their 2-0 home defeat by Gillingham at the weekend which kept the Owls rooted to the foot of the First Division.

The 23-year-old Saints centre half, who hasn't figured in Gordon Strachan's first-team this season, joined Wednesday on a month's loan last Thursday.

Speaking before the Gills game, Monk said: "I am looking to get some games and experience at a big club which is in a difficult position.

"Hopefully we can get points on the board."

Regarding Wednesday's precarious placing, Monk, who was last week handed a year's extension to his Saints contract taking him up to the end of the 2003/04 campaign, said: "The position in the table belies the size of the club.

"They are a massive club and I have been told they're good enough to get out of the situation they're in."