BASHLEY and Lymington and New Milton have held new talks regarding a possible merger of the two clubs.

And officials confirm that they have not ruled out inviting Brockenhurst to take part in discussions about the formation of a New Forest super-club.

Following a meeting between Bashley chairman and vice-chair Ray Pinney and Derek Binns and Linnets supremo Charlie Hewlett, both parties have voiced their support for an amalgamation of the Dr Martens League Eastern Division highfliers and their Wessex League neighbours.

But after revealing talks were only at a tentative stage, Binns and Hewlett admitted it was now up to the club committees to decide whether discussions should progress any further.

Binns said: "Everyone's always known my views, which aren't necessarily the views of the club, that for the two clubs to survive, they're going to have to merge at some point.

"At the moment, you've got three clubs all sharing supporters and sponsorship and if Lymington are interested in opening up talks properly, we've got to decide as a club whether we progress."

Hewlett said: "Derek Binns and Ray Pinney asked 'was there a chance we'd be interested in the merger?' and although no finer details were discussed I said I'd go back to our club and find out the opinions of other committee members.

"I believe a merger is the way forward but we're not a chairman run club, we're a committee run club and we're having an executive committee meeting on Monday with regards to the talks.

"I'd like to think a decision would be made at that meeting as to whether these merger talks do go any further.

"My vote will be that even if the committee discount the idea of joining with Bashley we should still listen to them."

The new talks come almost two years since serious merger speculation surfaced last ??????????????.

In March 2001, both Bash and Linnets admitted they were keen to discuss the possibility of uniting the clubs although those plans were kiboshed when ex-Bash chairman David Malone arrived at the Recreation Ground three months later.

But with proposed plans to restructure the Football Conference having potential knock-on effects throughout the non-league pyramid, both men agree now might be a good time to push the amalgamation through.

Binns added: "I don't think this will be the only possible merger being talked about throughout football.

"Clubs have got to be run as businesses and in the right way and there just aren't enough benefactors to support the number of clubs we have around here.

"If we're both playing at home we're splitting spectators. We're averaging 150, Lymington are getting about 100 so immediately, if the two clubs joined that's 250 supporters together.

"I've also found when I've tried to get sponsors in that our higher league status appeals to certain people, but the majority are splitting their sponsorship between the two clubs and that makes things very hard to sustain."

Hewlett said: "I can't say this is definitely going to be the time the merger's going to happen but I still want our club to at least talk to Bashley.

"There doesn't seem to be enough, not just players, but people involved in football in the area to sustain three or four clubs.

"All of our clubs are running too thinly on people prepared to do the work that's required to run a football club."

It is believed that if a merger were to take place, both sides would prefer the team to initially play their home games at Linnets' Fawcett's Field ground.