YATE Town are facing a fresh battle to keep Lewis Haldane – but chairman Colin Pick has quashed rumours that their star player has already left.

Speculation mounted that the former Bristol Rovers striker had played his last game for the Bluebells after he missed the 3-2 defeat at Shortwood in Division One South and West of the Southern League on Saturday to attend a wedding, and an unnamed club have since made a seven-day approach for his services.

However, Haldane is expected to be in the squad for this Saturday’s trip to North Leigh and was set to meet manager Rob Cousins for talks about his future last night.

Pick, who employs Haldane as a driver at his firm Picksons, said: “I think it is just a misunderstanding between him and the manager. Hopefully it will be sorted out for the weekend.”

Haldane, who turned down a move to Paulton Rovers earlier this month, was one of several players absent for Yate at Shortwood and Cousins is looking to bolster his squad after a run of five games without a win.

He revealed he made an attempt to re-sign prolific striker Scott Wilson, who scored 15 goals for Yate in the second half of the 2012/13 season, before he was snapped up by local rivals Paulton Rovers from Gloucester City last week.

“I enquired about him two weeks ago on loan from Gloucester and then it was a case of other clubs coming in for him and he’s opted for higher standard and more money.”

“We’ve been on the lookout for new blood but it’s easier said than done. We’ve got a small squad and were limited in options with people not being here.”

Cousins insists his side need to be more ruthless in both boxes at North Leigh after several chances went begging at Shortwood before they went 1-0 down from a long cross into the box and then conceded two goals to set pieces in the second half.

He said: “It’s little consolation to hear both sets of supporters and their management team saying what a great footballing side we are and one of the best sides they’ve had down here this year and not come away with something.

“We’ve got to keep believing in what we’re doing and it will come, we’ll get back to winning ways sooner rather than later but we’ve got to cut out the mistakes.

“It’s a case of picking them up and working hard on a few things we feel we need to work on like set plays defensively.”

Andy Lewis and Jordan Rogers return from suspension for the trip to North Leigh, while Bradley Abraham (thigh) is rated 50-50 after failing to prove his fitness in the warm-up to the Shortwood game.

Billy Fletcher has returned from Cadbury Heath and was an unused substitute last Saturday.