WITNEY Town manager Andy Lyne has been frustrated in his bid to sign centre back Jon Muttock from Carterton Town.

Carterton want a small fee for the former Oxford City player, but Witney are unwilling to meet their valuation.

Lyne said: "I would have been interested in bringing him to Witney because he is the archetypical type of centre half.

"It would also have allowed me to strengthen the team by moving players into other areas."

Meanwhile, Witney will be looking to close the gap on the Dr Martens Eastern Division's pacesetters when they visit struggling Spalding United tomorrow.

Witney Tn: Alder, Redknap, Abercrombie, Murphy, Tavinor, Merritt, Waters, Caffel, Henry, Teggart, Osmond, Neville, Swann, A Flory, Organ.

Striker Stewart McCleary starts a three-match ban tomorrow after being sent off at Bedford and misses Oxford City's Ryman Division 1 fixture at home to Yeading. While he is suspended, he is set to have surgery to clear up his knee injury which means he will be out for around a month.

Defender Terry Morrisey is set to drop down to the reserves.

Oxford City: from Foster, Peirson, Smart, Hayward, Dark, Sweeney, Lee, Wimble, Davy, Hulbert, Smith, Rose, Potter, Whitehead, Strong.

While City are second from bottom, Thame United are one off the top and they will be looking to close the gap on leaders Croydon when they visit Staines Town.

Eighteen-year-old James Saulsbury faces a fitness test on his groin strain which forced him to come off early in the second half during Tuesday's 1-0 FA Trophy defeat by Kettering.

However, defender Andy Williams, who has been out for three weeks after breaking a bone in his hand in a go-karting accident, is due to have the plaster removed today and could return. Striker John Mitchell misses the game as he is sitting exams at Oxford Brookes University, and Shaun Walker has moved on to Leighton Town.

Thame Utd: from Moores, G Williams, Jones, Gascoyne, Brown, Tregurtha, Avery, Saulsbury, Perna, Paul, West, Louis, Joe, Fontaine, Shepherd, A Williams.

Story date: Friday 03 December

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.