ANGRY Alvechurch boss Ian Long is considering whether to report Hereford FC for an illegal approach in relation to key player Ashley Carter.

Long confirmed that Hereford had made an offer for Carter earlier in the season which Alvechurch had rejected out of sight.

But Long has since discovered that Hereford had been trying to contact Carter behind the club's back.

Long pulled no punches this week when he said: "It's both illegal and disrespectful to Alvechurch. As you can tell, I'm extremely unhappy about it because I believed we had a good relationship with Hereford.

"Just because Hereford are a big club, doesn't mean they can do what they like and I will be speaking with our chairman over the situation."

Matters came to a head on Sunday when its claimed Hereford rang Carter while he was watching the Aston Villa game against Birmingham City - when ironically he was in the company of Alvechurch chairman Richard Thorndike.

Long added: "Ash passed the phone over to Richard, at which point Hereford rang off.

"Then Ash admitted there had been previous conversations between them.

"I want to state here and now that Ash is under contract and all this is doing is having an unsettling effect.

"I've since been in touch with Hereford manager Peter Beadle and I hope that will be the end of the matter".

It was Carter who came up with Alvechurch's winner in their 1-0 success over Corby Town last Saturday to keep the men from Lye Meadow well on target for promotion from Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Division One South.

Long insisted: "We were much the better side and should have won by a wider margin but our final ball has to be better and the decision making needs to improve But once we've got that right, someone is going to be on the end of a real hiding."

Church stay fifth in the table, but have several games in hand over all their promotion rivals.

But that situation could alter dramatically as Church travel to fourth placed Stamford on Saturday before visiting second in the table Frickley on Tuesday in what Long describes as 'massive games' for the club.