WINCHESTER City have confirmed the departure of skipper Stuart Green.

The attacking midfielder, signed from Bognor Regis Town last summer, is believed to be on his way to Southern One South & West rivals Salisbury.

The good news for City fans is that manager Craig Davis has already landed an almost like-for-like replacement.

In Ben ‘Chalky’ White, signed from Davis's old club Fleet Town, they have a player who has scored more than 20 goals in each of the last three seasons.

“We offered Stuart Green a good deal to stay at Winchester,” said Davis. “He hummed and hawed for a while, but he feels he needs a different challenge and he's going to Salisbury.

“But there's only so many players you can have in that luxury, off-the-strikers sort of position and we’ve got a good one in Chalky White.

“He’s a similar sort of player to Stuart Green and was involved in over 40 goals for Fleet last season.

“He was at Eastleigh at one stage and then Romsey which is where I picked him up from.”

Green’s departure follows hot on the heels of top scorer Craig Feeney's return to AFC Totton and centre-back Jamie Ford and winger Joe Briggs moving on.

But again, Davis is confident he has quality replacements in striker Oli Bailey from Gosport Borough and Fleet Town pair Josh Harfield (defender) and Rob Carr (wideman).

“I’m not worried about what we’ve lost,” said Davis. “I don’t want us to be the same as last year, I want us to be better.

“A few of these new lads are unknown quantities (to the fans) because they’ve been playing outside the area, but they’re good, locally-based players.

"Any player we sign will be done with the intention of improving us and I am very confident we will be in a much better place than we finished last season squad-wise."