HAVANT & WATERLOOVILLE are baffled by the Hampshire Football Associa-tion's decision to suspend the Russell Cotes Cup competition for two months.

The Hawks, who have suffered more than most due to wet-weather postponements, were all geared up to play a third-round tie at Brockenhurst tonight and their secretary Trevor Brock cannot see the sense in putting a perfectly playable fixture on hold.

"Both teams want the game to go ahead, the Brockenhurst pitch is playable, but all the HFA have succeeded in doing is adding to the list of postponements," he said.

"Surely it would have been better to consult the clubs to begin with rather than simply telling them they are not allowed to play. It all seems nonsensical."

Roy Dawson, deputy chairman of the HFA Cup Committee, said: "We're trying to let clubs clear up their backlog of league matches and felt that putting the Russell Cotes Cup on hold until February was the sensible thing to do, but we appreciate we can't please everybody. There were only ten days left for the current round of matches to be finished and not one had been played yet."

H&W at least got a Dr Martens Premier Division fixture under their belts on Saturday - and bagged three points into the bargain.

Their 1-0 win a Clevedon was secured in magical fashion on 69 minutes when Paul Wood cut inside two defenders and breezed past another two before beating keeper Mark Hervin from 15 yards.

"It was a good end-to-end battle and one of our better away performances of the season," summed up Brock.

With Jamie O'Rourke sidelined by a hamstring injury, James Taylor played a full game and went close after just four minutes when his header from Aaron Cook's free kick was clawed away by the keeper.

Clevedon, too, had some close shaves - most notably when Andy Mainwaring's shot hit the post and Steve Milson's effort was turned over by keeper Paul Nicholls.

Salisbury manager Geoff Butler has had his first disagreement with new signing Taffy Richardson.

All was well that ended well with a 3-0 win over bottom-of-the-table Fisher on Saturday, but Whites' woeful first-half showing led to a frank sideline exchange between Butler and midfielder Richardson, who was captain for the day in place of the unavailable Andy Cook.

"Taffy came over and started talking tactically, but I said what good are tactics if you've got a team of players who are just going through the motions," said the boss. "To look at the scoreline you'd think this was a cakewalk, but it was far from it in the first half. Our approach to the game was all wrong."

Salisbury lived a charmed life before Paul Sales struck against the run of play in the 41st minute, but Whites - who go sixth in the Premier Division on the strength of this win - were a different proposition after the break as Jimmy Smith and Roger Emms set the seal on victory.

Newport boss Tony Mount was raving about new signing Adam Holbrook as Newport brushed away the cobwebs with a 7-1 Eastern Division slaying of cellar-dwellers Wisbech.

Former Pompey defender Holbrook revelled in a central midfield role, making four goals and scoring the seventh himself in a confident and polished display.

"You'd go a long way to see a better debut than that," said Mount. "Adam ran the game and deservedly got a standing ovation from the crowd."

The Islanders, playing their first game in over a month, recovered well after falling behind inside three minutes. Danny Gibbons and Dave Wilson made it 2-1 at half-time and the floodgates opened after the break with Gibbons, Steve Tate, Karl Lis, Steve Watt and the heavenly Holbrook all on target.

Bashley came within three minutes of victory at Corby Town, but had to settle for a 2-2 Eastern Division draw.

Having created the first real chance when Dave Puckett's fierce drive was blocked, the Foresters fell behind to a 21st-minute David Hollis goal and then survived strong Corby penalty claims when Ashley Warner's shot appeared to strike Darren Robson's outstretched arm.

Phil Andrews flashed a shot across the face of goal and Puckett clipped the crossbar as Bash finished the first half the stronger and they deservedly levelled on 52 minutes through Andy Darnton.

Puckett made it 2-1 on the hour with a penalty awarded for a foul on Andrews and Robson almost increased Bashley's lead with a drive that flashed just over.

But heartbreak followed on 87 minutes when Warner's cross picked out Richard Tanner whose shot flew past fit-again keeper Geoff Sim into the far corner.