Havant & Waterlooville must weigh up principles against cost in deciding whether to continue the long-running Tony Taggart saga.

Hawks were found guilty by the Conference this week of bringing the game into disrepute by breaking a written agreement not to play Taggart against his old club, Weymouth, in January's 2-1 win at Westleigh Park.

They have been docked three points and fined £1,000 but, contrary Weymouth's initial belief, Hawks do have the right of appeal.

Havant remain adamant that they acted in good faith but it's a question now of whether they can afford to fight for what they believe in.

"Understandably we were very disappointed with the verdict," said club secretary Trevor Brock. "It flies in the face of the facts given.

"Of necessity I have to stay tight-lipped about the case because there's a 14-day appeal period and it's still sub judice, but there's more to this than meets the eye.

"We would have been utterly stupid to have done what Weymouth are saying we did. It's giving the impression that we're a sandwich short of a picnic, but one thing we're not is stupid.

"Potentially there's a lot still to come, but from our point of view it's getting very expensive."

The Conference originally decided in January that the match should be replayed, but they changed their decision in Monday's second hearing after the FA had found problems with the way the first hearing was conducted.

"The irony is that this latest decision will hurt Weymouth too because I'm sure they'd have liked the chance to replay the game and win the points. I can't see who gains anything from it," said Brock.

The points cannot be docked until the appeal period is over, leaving play-off chasing Havant in fifth place ahead of tomorrow's trip to Weston-super-Mare.

l Basingstoke Town can take another giant stride away from the relegation zone at home to rock-bottom Maidenhead United tomorrow.

New manager Francis Vines said: "We needed six points and we got three of those at Yeading last week. Now we have to make sure we get the other three tomorrow."

It's been a satisfying week for Southampton-based marksman James Taylor, who scored twice in the 4-0 Yeading win and bagged another brace against Newport on Tuesday to fire Stoke into the Hampshire Senior Cup final.