DORCHESTER Town boss Shaun Brooks will do his utmost to maintain the services of loan star Wes Fogden but admits that Saturday's trip to Thurrock "could be his last game".

Fogden, who had a loan spell with the Magpies last season, rejoined the county town side at the end of August and has been in tremendous form since.

But with just two fixtures left of his one-month loan - the second being the FA Cup tie with Newport County - Brooks doubts whether the tenacious 20-year-old will be at the club for much longer.

He said: "Wes has got two weeks left but Saturday could be his last game as he won't be able to play in the cup fixture as he would then be cup tied.

"We'll sit down with Wes but the impression at the moment is that he wants to get back to Brighton and try to compete to get into their first team.

"We'd love to keep him. He was great for us last year but he's perhaps been even better in the games he's played this season - he's played at an unbelievable level. If we can find a way to keep him we will but at the moment the odds are in favour of him going back to Brighton."

Brooks was on management duty last night as his team lost 1-0 to a Southampton XI at the Jewson Stadium in a friendly organised for the benefit of Bill Puckett - a pre-season trialist with the Magpies who suffered a season-long knee injury in July.

The match itself was a drab affair with an 84th minute Matt Patterson penalty, following Ronayne Marsh-Brown's foul on Kane McLaggon, all that separated the two sides.

The Saints did see two efforts cleared off the line by Nathan Peprah-Annan while the closest the Magpies came to a goal was through Ryan Moss, but he fired wide from just inside the box.

Of last night's encounter, Brooks added: "We used the game to try and build some money to keep Bill going while he's injured. All being well we'll arrange another game in a couple of months' time.

"We just want to fund him as best we can for the season that he'll be out. We're not obligated to do so but we felt it would be a goodwill gesture.

"I thought it was a decent enough game and Southampton have got some good players. Hopefully we've gained some fitness out of it but the main focus was Bill."

Having been on the lookout for a new defender, the Dorchester chief revealed he is unlikely to bolster his defensive options any time soon.

He said: "We've got one or two players in mind but it's trying to move things around as we're up to our given budget. We need to offload before we can get players in. The best way to go would be getting someone on loan but that's not easy as players tend to go to Blue Square Premier clubs or lower League clubs."

Magpies: Stewart (Coward 70), Marsh-Brown, Smeeton, Mitchell (Clay 46), Liburd, Peprah-Annan, Watts, Osei (Hill 46), Moss, Mudge, Gleeson (Osei 77).

Saints: Forecast, Hatch, Imudia (Burn 46), Davies, Argent, Dunford (McLaggon 70), Boyle, McNish, Patterson, Thomson (Reeves 60), White (Garrod 82). Sub not used: Pernecky.

* The Magpies appear to have closed the door on any potential legal action against the tackle that left Ivan Forbes out for the remainder of the season.

Brooks said: "We couldn't get video evidence and without it there's nowhere to go. If we would have been able to see it again I'm sure we would have been proved right as it was a horrendous tackle."

* Weymouth's Anton Robinson could not prevent England C losing 6-2 to Bosnia & Herzegovina's second-string in an international friendly in Sarajevo yesterday.