WITNEY Town's hopes of having star midfielder Karl Simpson back for Sunday's big FA Cup tie against Stevenage Borough at Marriotts Stadium (3pm) look to be receding fast.

Manager Andy Lyne had been optimistic that the former Norwich City player could have recovered from his shin ligaments injury in time to face the Conference high-fliers in the third qualifying round clash.

But now Lyne says Simpson, who picked up the injury in the cup win at Long Buckby four weeks ago, is extremely doubtful.

However, he had better news of midfielder Steve Ovens (calf) and defender Keith Knight (Achilles strain), who are both expected to pass fitness tests.

Witney are expecting a 1,000-plus crowd for the game with Stevenage expected to bring a travelling support of around 500.

The Conference club hit the headlines in the Cup last season with their giant-killing heroics which saw them beat Cambridge United and Swindon Town before going out amid much controversy to Newcastle after a replay.

Paul Fairclough's side stand third in the Conference, but produced one of the their worst displays for years as they crashed 3-0 at home to Hereford last Saturday.

They also failed to shine in midweek when they were held to a 3-3 draw at Ryman Division 2 outfit Hemel Hemptead in a Hertfordshire Senior Cup tie. Their dangerman is striker Carl Alford, who set the record transfer between two non-League clubs when he moved from Kettering to Rushden for £85,000 three years ago.

Alford, who has nine goals so far this season, later joined Stevenage for an undisclosed sum, believed to be around £25,000.

Meanwhile, Witney's hopes of re-signing striker Tom Pegler have hit a stumbling block with Newport IoW reluctant to let him go, and Town unable to afford the fee they are asking for.

However, Lyne has agreed to sign former Oxford United YTS trainee Marc McGregor on a month's loan from Forest Green, and he is due to join Witney after next week's FA Trophy tie at Wembley.

Witney Tn: from Alder, Knight, Martin, Leach, Tavinor, Ovens, Merriman, Caffel, Neville, Wimble, Teggart, Hulbert, Stevens, Organ, Millar, Simpson.

Banbury United also have a big home tie when they take on Ryman Premier club Enfield at the Stadium tomorrow (3pm).

New signing Mark Whitehouse, the ex-Kidderminster striker who made his Banbury debut in midweek, could be included in the starting line-up.

Ian Bowyer, Steve Jenkins, Les Phillips, Jon Corbett and Cliff Cousins, who were all rested for the midweek game, return to the squad.

Enfield are likely to include ex-Spurs player Paul Moran and former Watford star Steve Terry.

Banbury are expecting a crowd of around 750.

Banbury Utd: from Kearns, Stratford, Cousins, Muckelberg, Bowyer, Phillips, Corbett, Whitehouse, Jenkins, Deeley, McKay, Reynolds, Coleman, Carter, Sambrook, Smith, Evans, Purnell.

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