KIDSGROVE are to make an audacious bid to sign Wayne Corden from rivals Leek Town.

Grove manager Peter Ward, who needs a left winger to fill the gap left by a serious injury to Geoff McGaw, has long been an admirer of the former Port Vale and Leyton Orient player.

He put in seven days' notice of approach to Corden on Wednesday after losing McGaw to a broken left leg the night before.

A former Stoke City youngster, McGaw has also played for Witton Albion, Alsager Town, Biddulph Vics and Buxton since leaving the Potters, so it was ironic he should be so badly injured on his return to the Tunstall Road ground.

McGaw snapped his tibia and fibula in a challenge with Vics defender Chris Leigh who, in a further irony, is also registered with Kidsgrove and friends with the Irishman.

Ward absolved Leigh for any blame in the incident, which held up play for 23 minutes while McGaw was treated and then taken to hospital.

Ward said: "It was an innocuous looking tackle, but you could hear the crack all round the ground.

"At first I thought he had snapped his shin pad, but when I got to Geoff he knew the leg was broken."

Ward and Leigh visited McGaw in hospital the following day, and the manager said: "It is a clean break and Geoff may not need an operation if they can manipulate the bones back into position.

"They will do X-rays when the swelling has gone down, but Geoff was happy enough in the circumstances. Geoff and Chris are mates, so Chris was really upset."

The injury to McGaw marred Grove's 4-0 FA Cup replay victory that was achieved without a recognised goalkeeper.

Steve Intihar was unavailable so centre-back Dave Harper, who has played between the sticks before, took over.

Ward said: "Vics also had an outfield player in goal in Steve Brannan, so I wonder whether that is some kind of record."

Intihar is back for tomorrow's home game against Quorn while Harper reverts to his normal role at the back in place of Nick Ward, who is unavailable,

Jamie Pointon is banned, leaving Kidsgrove down on numbers so they are hoping to borrow Chris Leigh from Vics as they do not play until Sunday.

NEWCASTLE TOWN have lost the services of John Sheldon, probably until the New Year.

The left-back is off to Australia for three months, and his departure has caught the Castle management team on the hop.

"We knew it was on the cards, but did not realise it would happen so quickly," said boss Greg Clowes.

"But as one door shuts another opens, and Lewis James now has the opportunity for an extended run in the side."

Sheldon has missed Castle's last two games with a hamstring injury, but has played his part in their flying start to the season.

Clowes said: "He is a good player who has matured as a lad. John was starting to do the rounds when we brought him in last year and settled him down.

"He was good at set pieces and going forward, but we had to work on his defending."

Sheldon scored seven goals last year as Castle romped to promotion from the Vodkat Premier Division.

However, everything remains rosy in the Castle garden after three wins out of three in the league and a comfortable passage in the FA Cup.

They hit the top of the table by beating Market Drayton at home on Monday, although it took a spectacular strike by Matt Bell to decide a tight game.

Tomorrow they are off to Spalding and, in addition to Sheldon, will be without midfield duo Mike Douglas and Michael Morton, who is serving a suspension.

LEEK TOWN seized on the opportunity of a friendly this week when they travelled to Alsager Town.

One of manager Wayne Johnson's theories for Blues' poor start to the season has been a lack of match sharpness, so he took his full squad to the Town ground for a useful work out.

Leek, whisper it, lost 1-0, but Johnson said: "I got a big lift from the game after losing to Eccleshall in the FA Cup last week.

"The players worked hard and closed people down, so I am looking for them to take that approach into tomorrow's trip to Lincoln United."

Johnson admits he took a couple of days to calm down after the Eccleshall shock, and explained: "This is a new experience for me and a learning curve.

"As a player, I did not go through this sort of disappointment, so it is a strange one for me to deal with.

"I accept part of the blame because the players did not get enough time on the park in pre-season.

"We only had six games and, with a big squad, some players only had three games under their belt going into the start.

"It is almost as if we are still in pre-season with players getting match practice.

"We also have a situation in the dressing room in that eight players may be questioning whether they are part of the squad, so we may have to dwindle the numbers a bit."